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PRESENTED BY 






REVIEW 



LORD BROUGHAM'S TRANSLATION 



ORATION OF DEMOSTHENES 



ON THE CROWN, 



RE-PRINTED FROM " THE TIMES" NEWSPAPER. 



LONDON: 

WHITTAKER & Co. AVE MARIA LANE. 

1840. 






LONDON : 

GILBERT AND RIVINGTON, PRINTERS, 

ST. JOHN'S SQUARE. 



onrr 

BERTRAM SMITH 



SEP 2 8 1933 



REVIEW 



OF 



The Oration of Demosthenes upon the Crown, Translated into 
English with Notes ! I ! and the Greek Text. By Henry 
Lord Brougham, F.R.S. and Member of the National 
Institute of France. London : C. Knight and Co. 1840. 



We recollect reading soinewhere (we believe in 
Edwards's Canons of Criticism) an anecdote of 
an Irish peasant, who knowing nothing, or next 
to nothing, of any language but his own native 
Milesian, and being in want of every thing but 
that " modest intrepidity of face," which is the 
birthright of all his countrymen, gave himself 
the name of Don Pedro di Mondongo ; and, on 
the strength of having passed a few weeks in 
Spain, as groom to a priest on his travels, ad- 
vertised himself as a teacher of Spanish, and 
ventured to sell the brogue of Tipperary as the 
pure genuine language of Castile. Now, with 
all deference to Lord Brougham, who knows 

a 2 



about as much of Greek as our Irish tutor knew 
of Spanish, his lordship, in selling to Messrs. 
Knight and Co. the volume at the head of this 
article as a version of Demosthenes, calculated 
" to assist the student of the Greek language, as 
well as the student of the rhetorical art" has 
practised the same sort of fourberie on those 
unthinking bibliopoles, which Paddy Geohagan's 
boy — for such was the patronymic in which Don 
Pedro di Mondongo delighted — practised on 
his credulous and unfortunate dupes. When 
the fatal hour came, which stripped the un- 
blushing Paddy of his Spanish title, he pleaded 
the pressure of poverty in mitigation of the 
bastinado-ing with which he was threatened. 
Such a plea can never be preferred by Lord 
Brougham, so long as he enjoys the usual pen- 
sion of a dowager chancellor; and we should, 
therefore, be at a loss to discover the cruel 
necessity which has impelled his lordship to 
make this melancholy, and at the same time 
this laughable, exhibition of himself as a trans- 
lator from the Greek, did we not recollect, that 
another great man, w T ho had also " a mint of 
phrases in his brain," had been induced to 
amuse his leisure hours with translating into 
his own language the celebrated oration of 
Demosthenes upon the Crown. The recollec- 
tion of that circumstance was the key to the 



whole secret of the recent book-making specu- 
lations of " Henry Lord Brougham, F.R.S. and 
Member of the National Institute of France," 
His ambition is to have himself considered as 
the rival of Cicero ; but let him do what he 
will, he will never be more than the ape of 
that incomparable man. Cicero wrote an ela- 
borate treatise de Naturd Deorum : and, there- 
fore, Lord Brougham came out with a heavy 
treatise on " Natural Theology." Cicero pub- 
lished his disputations at Tusculum ; and, there- 
fore, Lord Brougham published his conversaziones 
with Lord Althorp and others on the banks of 
the Eden. Cicero wrote, or rather translated, a sci- 
entific work on astronomy, and Lord Brougham 
indited a treatise (oh ! how scientific !) on Hy- 
drostatics. Cicero gave the world a dissertation 
" De Oratore ;" and Lord Brougham immediately 
felt that he could not do less than give it " A 
Dissertation on Ancient and Modern Eloquence." 
Cicero wrote a long poem upon his own con- 
sulate, and last week were advertised the poems 
of Lord Brougham. It has since been averred, 
that the advertisement was a hoax ; but we 
know, from his own confession in parliament, 
that his lordship does write verses — ay, and 
Greek verses too!!! — and if such verses should 
ever come before the public, we have no doubt 
that Lord Brougham will be found chaunting 

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6 



his own extraordinary freaks as a kilted and 
tartaned Lord Chancellor, with quite as much 
unction as ever Cicero sang his own extraor- 
dinary merits as the protector of Rome from 
revolution and rapine. Perhaps, too, when he 
finds that reputation is not to be acquired in 
this imitative fashion, Lord Brougham will con- 
clude by consoling his disappointment with a 
treatise, after the manner of Cicero, on the con- 
tempt of glory. 

As, then, Lord Brougham has thought fit to 
publish his translation of the oration upon the 
Crown, when, according to honest Dogberry's 
phrase, " there was no need of such vanity," let 
us see what are the reasons, which he openly 
avows as his motives for making this experiment, 
not on a vile substance, but on two such noble 
languages as the Greek and our own. Accord- 
ing to his preface he had repeatedly formed 
and abandoned his intention of " transferring " 
this oration " into our Saxon tongue." In 1812 
he communicated his ideas on the subject to 
" one of the best scholars, and most acute, 
though severe critics, of his time, the late Lord 
Dudley ;" and from his own showing, it is quite 
evident that that excellent nobleman discerned, 
that, with the scanty smattering of Greek pos- 
sessed by Lord Brougham, he was quite incapa- 
ble of doing justice to " the greatest oration of 



the greatest orator of Greece." Without telling 
him as much in precise words, Lord Dudley im- 
plored him not to make an ass of himself by per- 
sisting in such an undertaking. " Your trans- 
lation," said he, " is addressed either to those, 
who know the original, or to those, who do not. 
The former cannot want it, the latter cannot 
materially profit by it ; for no translation " — evi- 
dently meaning, no translation of yours, Mr. 
Brougham — " can give an adequate idea of the 
original." This for a time deterred Lord 
Brougham from the object, which he had long 
kept in view : but " the example of Cicero, who 
had made an experiment upon this oration in 
the Latin language," continued to haunt his 
mind, and prevented him from abandoning it 
altogether. He became more and more in love 
" with the exquisite original, and with its in- 
comparable beauties, both in the substance and 
in the diction ; and at last, urged on, as he says, 
by Lord Wellesley, who must have been mysti- 
fying him, and by Lord Lyndhurst, who seems 
to have told him plainly enough that his trans- 
lation w r ould be nothing to brag on, as " the 
closeness, the vigor, and rapidity of Demosthenes 
would only be seen in it, as through a glass, 
darkly" he submitted the volume, in which he 
has " done " Demosthenes into English, and in 
which, as far as an author can be murdered, he 

a 4 



8 



has also done for Demosthenes, to the revision 
of Dr. Arnold, the learned master of Rugby 
School ; and encouraged by his approbation, has 
sent it, as in duty bound, for publication to the 
booksellers of his own society " for confusing 
youthful knowledge." With a craftiness, too, 
not uncongenial to his northern blood, he has 
attempted to force it into circulation by impress- 
ing into his service three Lords and one school- 
master, as puffers preliminary to his " experi- 
ment." Nay, he has done more : he has had 
the cruelty to make one of them, Dr. Arnold, to 
whom, as we have before said, he sent this trans- 
lation for revision, and who probably returned it 
unread, with a civil letter, responsible for the 
enormous mass of ignorant blunders which it 
contains, and for the collection of hasty, crude, 
and unedifying notes by which it is accompanied. 
Now if Dr. Arnold has really given the sanction 
of his authority, either to this translation, or to 
the notes affixed to it, we tell him, without 
any circumlocution, that he is as incompetent to 
teach, as Lord Brougham is to translate, Greek : 
but we know Dr. Arnold to be a scholar, and a 
ripe one ; and we have no doubt that a regard 
to his own reputation will induce him to dis- 
claim at once the unmerited stigma which Lord 
Brougham's preface casts upon it. We are sure 
that almost every other scholar, to whom the 



9 



volume had been sent for correction, would have 
returned it in despair, and would, on returning 
it, have sent a note to the translator's friends 
and relations, desiring them to restrain him from 
the use of pen, ink, and paper, rather than let 
him write himself down in so unmerciful a 
manner. 

Before w r e enter upon the vapulation which 
we intend to inflict on Lord Brougham's literary 
hide for his innumerable acts of mistranslation, 
interpolation, and mutilation committed upon 
Demosthenes — whom in his notes he designates 
rather funnily by the letter A. — we should like, 
if we had time, to say a few words upon his 
disquisition on the comparative merits of the 
Greek, the Latin, and the English languages ; 
but we have a long, a tedious, and a wearisome 
task before us, and we therefore abstain from 
all comments upon the very common-place ob- 
servations on that subject which Lord Brougham 
has introduced into his preface, evidently with- 
out understanding any thing about them, except 
their use to fill up blank paper and to complete 
a sheet. AYe, therefore, without further ani- 
madversion, send the preface to its account, 
" with all its imperfections on its head," merely 
remarking, that he, who reads it, will glean from 
Lord Brougham's declaration, " that he has got 
the greater part of this oration off by heart" two 

a 5 



10 



circumstances of singular importance to his 
future historian. The first is, that the noble 
lord gets off by heart that which he does not un- 
derstand ; and the next and the most surprising, 
that, like his friend Lord Dudley, he has a heart, 
in spite of every thing said to the contrary by 
Lord Stanhope and the other antagonists of his 
inhuman Poor Law. 

With respect to the translation itself, the 
magnum opus, which is to be more durable even 
than the brass which enters so largely into the 
noble lord's own composition, the only reason, 
why we do not feel ourselves justified in assert- 
ing that it is the very worst translation of the 
very finest specimen of oratory that the world 
ever listened to, is, that we have not consulted 
any one of the translations by Leland, Francis, 
Dawson, Millot, or Cesarotti, all of which have 
been criticised with unsparing severity by Lord 
Brougham. But having heard, from competent 
authorities, that each and all of these individuals 
had a great knowledge of the Greek language, 
and having ourselves discovered that Lord 
Brougham has a very limited knowledge of it 
indeed, we believe that we should not err much 
in advancing, unhesitatingly, so bold an asser- 
tion. With the exception of Xenophon, the 
language of Demosthenes is more easy to under- 
stand than that of any other Greek author with 

11 



11 



whom we are acquainted ; and yet we wish to 
have our words understood to the letter, when 
we say that there is not one single page in the 
two hundred and sixteen pages, over which Lwd 
Brougham's version of Demosthenes spreads itself, 
in which there are not, on an average, three or four 
blunders, which would be unpardonable even in a 
stripling of fourteen. We are as averse as Lord 
Brougham can be to the amplifications and cir- 
cumlocutions in which so many of our translators 
occasionally indulge ; but we must remind Lord 
Brougham, that in a language so full of com- 
pound terms as the Greek, there are many words 
in which it is impossible to give the full mean- 
ing in corresponding single words in any of the 
languages of modern Europe, differing as the 
various nations which speak them do from an- 
cient Greece in manners, habits, and feelings, as 
well as in laws, morals philosophy, and religion. 
We think, too, with him, that " it is the duty 
of a translator to make his version as close as 
possible to his original, without abandoning the 
peculiar idiom in which it is w T ritten ;" and if 
his lordship were really anxious to see how that 
duty, which he has perpetually violated, has 
been performed by modern scholars of eminence, 
we would refer him to the excellent literal 
translations of passages from the Greek orators 
and historians which are interspersed by Mr. 

a 6 



12 



Mitford, and especially by Mr. Thirl wall, through- 
out their respective histories of Greece. But the 
fact is, that, in endeavouring to give what he 
calls a literal version of Demosthenes, Lord 
Brougham has written a book, which, in point 
of style, is neither Greek nor English, which is 
filled with uncouth barbarisms upon both lan- 
guages, and which, like the fabled Hermaphro- 
dite, is equally deficient in manly strength and 
in graceful beaut}'. A painter, who should copy a 
picture of the Italian school upon the same princi- 
ple on which Lord Brougham has transferred the 
spirit of Demosthenes from Greek into English, 
would transform " Laura into a kitchen-wench, 
and Dido into a dowdy." Lord Brougham talks 
largely of his knowledge of the mariner in which 
an English audience is affected by the style of 
the speaker, and on that point at least we are 
not inclined to dispute his knowledge : but does 
he think, that if, instead of delivering the senti- 
ments of a clever, in the language of a common, 
man, he had invested them in the lumbering 
piebald and pedantic dialect in which he makes 
Demosthenes deliver them, creeping at one time 
on the ground, and soaring at another time amid 
the stars and clouds, he would ever have stirred 
the heart of this country, or would ever have 
exalted himself from his comparatively humble 
position originally, to his present distinguished 



13 



rank in society ? But we see clearly enough the 
cause of the great inequality of diction which 
pervades this translation. Being almost unac- 
quainted with the forms and flexions of the lan- 
guage which he has undertaken to interpret, — 
being stone-blind to all its niceties of phrase and 
idiom, of voices, moods and tenses, and of par- 
ticles, participles, and prepositions, — fancying 
difficulties where there are none, and jumping 
over them with light foot whenever they are 
formidable and require time, attention, and 
thought for their mastery, he is perpetually in- 
fested with a desire to be eloquent, and ham- 
pered by his inability to pursue the steps by 
which Demosthenes became so. Like a man 
dancing in fetters, whenever he is most anxious 
to show his agility, he is most in danger of fall- 
ing heavily to the ground. Witness his elaborate, 
yet feeble and inaccurate, translation of the ce- 
lebrated (ryriiuLa ofAoriKov, the most noble and in- 
spiriting passage in the whole oration. He may 
sneer, as he will, at college rhetoricians, and 
denounce them as incapable of either under- 
standing or teaching real eloquence ; but we 
tell him that, attending, as we have attended, 
day by day, for the last twenty years, " those 
real schools of oratory, the senate, the forum, 
and the public assembly," and listening to the 
Cannings, and Copleys, we feel convinced that 



14 



the glorious adjuration of Demosthenes, so ill- 
conceived, so mis-translated, so ill-expressed, so 
mangled and so mutilated as it appears in his 
version, would, if addressed to an English audi- 
ence, have fallen as unimpressively upon their 
ears as any sentence that ever fell from the 
mouth of a Hume, or a Borthwick, or a Lord 
Mounteagle. His version may have some re- 
semblance to the original; but it is only the 
resemblance which a cast in wax bears to the 
divinity of the human face. The features are 
there, but they want intellect and animation, 
and look as if they were frozen into the frigidity 
of death. Can we say more in dispraise of the 
foul, wallowing, boisterous, and un-English style 
of this very bald and miserable translation. 

But a translator of Demosthenes, indepen- 
dently of possessing a good English style, and 
some slight knowledge of the language which 
he volunteers to interpret, should know some- 
thing of the times in which his author lived, — 
of the form of the government under which he 
acted, — of the public and private enemies with 
whom he had to contend, — of the manners of 
the people whom he sought to influence, and to 
oppose, — of their modes of legislation,— of their 
courts of judicature, — of their public assemblies, 
— of their religious rites and ceremonies, — of 
their financial and statistical arrangements, — 



15 



of their spectacles, processions and games, — 
and, in a word, of all the conflicting follies, 
passions, prejudices, and superstitions by which 
they were led or driven as their rulers pleased. 
Even as a British lawyer, if not as a British 
legislator, we should have expected Lord 
Brougham to have had some acquaintance, 
however superficial, with these interesting sub- 
jects. But this volume proves him guilty of 
ignorance on all these points, so crass, — we 
thank him for teaching us that word, — as to be 
almost incredible. We have him perpetually 
attempting in his translation to approximate the 
offices and officers of the Athenian government 
to the offices and officers of our own free state ; 
and in most cases, as any scholar would have 
expected, the offices and officers so approximated 
have not as much resemblance to each other as 
JMacedon and Monmouth. He makes pontiffs 
of the Hieromnemons, who were mere deputies 
sent from the Amphictyonic cities ; and because 
they were charged with the care of the religious 
ceremonies of their country, bestows on them 
most liberally all the benefit of clergy. He dates 
from their " pontificates," as if they had been so 
many popes ; and talks of auditors, and assess- 
ments, and assessors, where plain men, his pre- 
decessors, were content to see only the logistae, 
the liturgies, and the liturgi. Indeed, in almost 



16 



every passage in which it was most incumbent 
on him to preserve the nationality of Demos- 
thenes as an Athenian, he makes him act and 
speak as if he were a resident at London, and 
at once a member of the House of Commons 
and the Court of Common Council [BovA?/]. 
These instances are sufficient for a sample of 
our meaning ; and we have neither leisure nor 
inclination to enter further into details at pre- 
sent. We pledge ourselves, however, that every 
syllable which we have uttered on this point, 
shall be made good by extracts from his book, 
before we bring this series of articles to a ter- 
mination. 

We expect to be told, that such sweep- 
ing charges of incompetency and ignorance 
as we have just been making against a per- 
son of Lord Brougham's high scientific and 
literary character, cannot, and ought not to be, 
credited without some proof. Well, then, proof 
shall be adduced, in masses sufficient to con- 
vince the most incredulous that we are justified 
in speaking of this book in terms the most con- 
temptuous. The mistakes of Lord Brougham 
are dangerous on account of the extent of the 
influence which, justly or unjustly, he has un- 
questionably attained ; and the interests of learn- 
ing require that they should be pointed out, 
before chimerical conjectures, and the most ap- 



17 



palling blunders, are propagated as precedents 
of authority among the ignorant and unwary. 
We shall, therefore, examine his version para- 
graph by paragraph, and line by line, with the 
original Greek ; and if in so doing we should be 
longer than our wont, it must be attributed to 
our wish to tear the mask from imposture, and 
to reduce a puffed-up leviathan to his natural 
dimensions in the republic of letters. We have 
avoided as much as possible all disquisitions 
merely grammatical ; and, in most instances 
have exposed ourselves to counter-criticism, by 
placing our own translation in contrast with the 
passages which we conceive Lord Brougham to 
have mistranslated, as the shortest mode of ex- 
posing and correcting his lordship's errors. Had 
we been adventurous enough to publish a trans- 
lation of this inestimable oration ourselves, we 
should have endeavoured to give a point and 
finish to our specimens, which we readily admit 
that they do not at present possess. But our 
object has been nothing more than to explain, 
as briefly as possible, the meaning of Demos- 
thenes ; and that being accomplished, we have 
been indifferent to the graces of literary compo- 
sition. We know that the everlasting verdure 
of the laurels, which crown the brow of Demos- 
thenes, has nothing to fear from the blight- 
ing effects of the ignorance, the indiscretion? 



18 



or the audacity of Lord Brougham ; but that 
is no reason why we should hold our peace, 
or abstain from inflicting upon him that flagel- 
lation which he was never slow to inflict upon 
those whom he found meddling with matters 
which they had either not taken pains to ex- 
amine, or wanted capacity to comprehend. 

Now, then, to our proofs : and in the follow- 
ing notulce, be it observed, that A. is Lord 
Brougham's symbol for Demosthenes, and B. 
our symbol for Lord Brougham. 

To stumble on the threshold has always been 
considered a bad omen: and B. not merely 
stumbles, but after a very capricious caracole, 
falls flat upon his back in his translation of the 
opening section of this great oration. Quinc- 
tilian, and Dionysius the Halicarnassian, have 
been large in their praises of the skill with which 
A. managed it. The latter has even entered into a 
long comment, to show that it possessed a 
qualification which B. has often cited as the 
best description of good writing, namely, " proper 
words in their proper places." We should, 
therefore, have expected that his lordship would 
have adhered as closely as possible, not only to 
the words, but to the collocation of the words of 
A. But no such thing- — ttoWov ye /jlzv Ssi*. His 
lordship translates as follows : — 

" Let me begin, men of Athens, by imploring 



19 



of all the heavenly powers, [i. e. he implores 
human beings to let him implore the gods- 
how different from the simple Tlpwrov tv^ojuai ! 
We believe that the Greek for his words would 

be either ' Kyzvvv, irpCoTOV ev^wjuiai, or Aorc jULOi 

irpCoTov 8v^€(T0at,] that the same kindly senti- 
ments, which I have throughout my public life ! 
cherished towards this country, and each of you, 
[octijv evvoiav k^wv SiarsAw ttj tb 7roAa /cat waGiv 

viuv — literally, " whatever attachment I may 
have borne, and still continue to bear, towards 
this country, and to all of you,"] may now by 
you be shown towards me in the present con- 
test : next, I beseech them to grant, what so 
nearly concerns yourselves, [o7rep earl fiaXiaO' 
vTrep vjulwv — literally, " what is most of all con- 
ducive to your interests,"] your religion, and 
your reputation, that you may not take counsel 
of my adversary touching the course ! to be 
pursued in hearing my defence, [irepl rov -ttwiq 
aKovuv v/jlclq Sa, " respecting the manner or 
feeling in which you must hear me," as is evi- 
dent from the to o{ioiii)Q ajityoiv aKpoaaavOui, 
which immediately follows, and also from the 
speech of iEschines himself,] that would indeed 
be hard : but that you may regard the laws and 
your oaths, which, among so many other just 
rules, lay down this — that both sides shall equally 
be heard [rather, "that you hear both par- 



20 



ties with like impartiality ;" or, as our law has 
it, " indifferently."] Nor does this merely im- 
port that no one shall be prejudged, [to ^ri 

7TpOKaTeyv(i)Kevai (jtrj^ev — not jm^evoc; — which is, 

" no precondemnation is to be made on any sin- 
gle point in the case ;" a far stronger word than 
prejudging, as prejudgment may be in favour of 
the defendant as well as of the plaintiff] or that 
equal favour shall be extended to both parties. 
It also implies that each antagonist," &c. 

It is quite evident, from this specimen of Lord 
B.'s power, that he is quite ignorant of the re- 
sources which the Greek language has in its 
prepositions, both in and out of composition. 
At p. 40 of this translation, there is a note on 
Leland's translation of -n-paTrovTa SiaTtXeiv Kal 
siraiveiv, which proves that it is not from care- 
lessness, but from sheer ignorance, that Lord B. 
offends in his translation of such compound 
words as SiartXav and TrpotcaTzyvwKivai. Leland 
translates, " the zeal which I have ever disco- 
vered, and still discover." Lord B. says, " this 
is a paraphrase, ' and still discover ;' " and then 
crows over Leland, who is, at any rate, correct 
in his version of cWsAav, as being careless of the 
original. We could quote many other instances 
in which Lord B. has fallen into blunders from 
this source ; but we notice it now, to save the 
trouble of commenting upon it hereafter. 



21 



P. 2. ouroc £/c 7repiou(Tiac pov KaTtjyopei : "He 
brings his charge an unprovoked volunteer," B. 
Rather, " out of the abundance of his malice he 
prefers his accusation against me." We have 
the phrase in the English translation of the 
Bible : " Out of the abundance of the heart the 
mouth speaketh." 

P. 3. wq ewoQ u7ruv cvo^Aa : " I may almost say 
is distasteful," B. This is a dilution of the spirit 
of A. with a vengeance. One might as well say 
it would be distasteful to be hanged ; or, what is 
nearly as bad, to listen to one of Lord Brougham's 
long-winded harangues, in justification of his 
often -repeated assertion, that he is the only 
honest and consistent politician of modern times. 

P. 4. T\)Q Trap vuwv evvoiag /cat fyikavdowirlaQ, 

OGW 7TE/0 Kai TO TVytlV TOVTWV flkyiGTOV EGTIV. Uzpl 

tovtwv $ ovroq Tovrov'i rov aycovoq, k. t. A. " To 

lose your confidence and esteem, of all posses- 
sions the most precious. Such being my stake 
in this cause," &c. Nothing is said in the 
original of " confidence and esteem," and nothing 
in the translation importing that the loss of their 
kind and friendly feelings will be the more em- 
bittered by the reflection, that he considered his 
success in having surmounted the difficulty of 
winning them, (tv^uv, not rvyyavuv,) as one of 
his greatest acquisitions. Neither does A., ex- 
cept by inference, say a word about " his stake" 



22 



in the suit. He was not so egotistical. His 
expression simply is, "Such interests being at 
stake in this conflict." But the whole of the 
next section is so full of blunders and inter- 
polations by the noble translator, that there is 
scarcely any dealing with it. In the clause, 

aKOvaai jjlov wept twv Karr/yopr/juevwv a7roAoyov/u£vou 

Sued/we* he joins Sucaioyg with cLKovGai, and sepa- 
rates it from aTtoXoyov/uLsvov, although he has in 
the verv next clause of the same sentence, ra 

tov XiyovTog varspov Si/ccua svvolkCjq Trpoa^e^erai ; 

and in the next page the defence is called rwv 

vnep ttjq ypatyrjg Si/caiwv. 

Ibid. ra> ypa^ai vofiovg, which means simply, 
"by having proposed the laws," B. translates, 
" engraving them on brazen tables ! /" And this 
is not being paraphrastical ! 

P. 5. roue Qtovg wapaKaXecTaL, " implore the 
gods," B. A. does more. He summons the gods 
personally into the court, as his coadjutors. The 
preposition irapa brings them to his very side. 
It is the " Adsis, O Tegesee favens," of Virgil, 

and the Arjjurjrgo ayvtov opyiwv ' Kvaaoa, ctuju- 

TrapaGTCLTu Kal ow£i- of Aristophanes. 

P. 9. kyBpov eirripeiav iy^ei Kal vfipiv Kal XotSo- 

piav Kal TrpoirriXaKiGiJLov ofiov, Angl..: "contains 
a combination of rancor and insolence, and 
wrangling, and throwing of dirt, which is cha- 
racteristic of a personal enemy." Lord B. reads 



23 



ejiov, which weakens the passage, and is, besides, 
unsupported by any MSS. and translates, "is 
marked with the spite and scurrility of a personal 
enemy, with defamation, foul slander of my 
character." 

P. 12. Trap avTa ra aSifcrj/uara. B. translates 

with Taylor, " recentibus delictis." The sense 
requires what the words express, " at the very 
time the offences were committed." And so 
Lord B. translates irapa, when he comes to rove 

irap avra tcl it pay para eXiyyovq. 

Ibid. Lord B. translates, as if he had no 
knowledge of the difference between 81/07, an 
action, ypatyri, an indictment, or public action, 
and uaayytXta, an impeachment. This occurs 
throughout the oration, ovk av eypaxparo. " He 
would not have accused," B. In this passage it 
must be, " he would not have indicted me." 

Ibid, ri Twv aXXtov wv vvvi SiepaAAe Kal Si^rja. 

Angl. : " Any of those other things, winch he 
was just now misrepresenting and detailing," i. e. 
misrepresenting in detail. B. translates thus, 
" attacking and running down." 

P. 14. B. in his translation entirely omits 
the word viroKpiverai, which is of great import- 
ance, as it is A.'s first sneer against the original 
profession of iEschines as an actor. He also 

translates rov p\v ayiovog oXov rr\v wpoc; £fne ttmq 
syupav 7rpoVffTarai, oi>Sa/uou S em TavTtjv aTr^vrrjACwc 



24 

£/iot rt)v ETepov ZflTiov kiriTifilav afeXeaOai fyaivzrai. 

" He envelopes his whole proceedings with the 
fiercest hatred of me, [rather — " he places his 
personal hatred, for some cause or other, against 
me, at the head and front of all these proceed- 
ings,"] and, without ever meeting me fairly, 
endeavours to rob another of his good name" 
[rather — " and never having met me fairly on 
that ground, evidently seeks to deprive another 
of his civil privileges"']. 'Enin^'ia does not mean 
" good name," but " all the privileges which an 
Athenian possessed till he was marked with 
art^ia," the penalty which Ctesiphon would have 
incurred had A.'s defence of him been unsuc- 
cessful. Cf. the Frogs of Aristoph. 669, and 
Mr. Mitchell's note thereupon. E7riTipovg Kal 

-rroXirag. Lys. 161. 16. firj v/uag avri £7rmjua>v 



> t 



arifuiovg TroirjcrnTE. 

Ibid. ra TTETrpayfiEva Eavrio . B. "his own 

delinquencies." A. uses here, ew consulto, the 
very mildest term he can discover. 

Ibid, iva irpog tov virapyovra Kaipov EKaara 

Qewpjite. B. has completely mistaken the point 
here. What A. says is, " It is necessary, men 
of Athens, and perhaps fitting [not " will be 
convenient"] to recall to your recollection our 
circumstances at that time, in order that you 
may view them in contrast with our circum- 
stances at the present crisis :" not as B. trans- 



25 



lates it " in order to perceive how each of the 
matters in question really stands 1 ." 

P. 15. What does Lord B. mean by calling 
in the note ipig /ecu rapa^rj, a finely chosen ex- 
pression for " a confused, indistinct, and surd 
discontent ?" 

P. 16. Will it be credited that the striking- 
pathos of the antithesis, ol tote fxlv fiapeig, vvv 8' 
cLTvyuq 9>//3cuoi, is merely rendered by the 
words, " the Thebans after all their insolence V 
Why not literally, "the Thebans once so haughty, 
now so unfortunate?" 

Ibid, ti ovv Gvvrjy(jjvi<J(iTO avTuy irpoq to \aj3uv 
oXlyov 8av vfxaq ekovtciq f $a7rarw/ievovc \ H r<Lv 
aXXwv *EAA?7vwVj are ^otj KaKiav, k. t. A. Lord 
B. has not only translated this wrongly, but has 
forgotten his ordinary rhetorical skill in not 
giving, as A. does, a direct and rapid answer to 
the question, which he has himself asked with 
so much dramatic force. A. asks : " What was 
it that co-operated with Philip so as to enable 

1 A scholar, who under the signature of " Rusticus" has 
communicated to the Editor of the Times some very 
sensible and judicious remarks on these animadversions, 
contends that the Reviewer and B. are both wrong, and 
that the correct translation of %va 7rpog tov vTrapypvTa 
Kaipbv ekcmjtcl dewprjrs is, " that you may consider each mea- 
sure with reference to the then existing circumstances," or 
M to the particular crisis." 

B 



26 



him to catch you all but willingly deceived ? 
It was — shall I call it? — the cowardice, or 
ignorance, or both, of the other Greek states," 
&c. B. translates thus : " What then enabled 
him thus to overreach you, who were, I might 
almost say, wilfully deceiving yourselves ? It must 
be admitted that the other Greek states, either 
from cowardice or from infatuation, or both, 
would give no assistance," &c. 

P. 17. to, TOVT(t)v aSucfinara, /ecu ScopoSoKr/fiara 

kv avTy. These are strongish terms : but are 
thus diluted into mere milk-and-water expres- 
sions by B., " the measures and corruptions of 
his party." " The misdemeanors, of which these 
men were guilty, and the bribes by which they 
were corrupted during that peace," is a little 
nearer to the meaning of A. 

Ibid. wpujTog ixvr\oduq vnejo tt)q upfjviiQ* B. 

" first broached the subject of peace." And this 
for A. whose horror for all pv^ara <j>opriKa ml 
ar)$ri is vouched for by Dionysius of Halicar- 
nassus ! B. often offends upon this string. 

Ibid. SaVTOV JULBTCL TOVTOV {IKjQbMJaQ £7Tl TOVTa, 

" exerted himself with Aristodemus to further 
it " B. What has his lordship made of the 
direct charge of bribery, brought in the original, 
against both Aristodemus and Philocrates ? To 
make up for this dilution of A. here, B. trans- 
lates koivuvoq croc, which merely means, * your 



27 



colleague," or " a man of your party/' into " your 
accomplice." 

P. 18. kcli fxr\v y u to K(i)\vaai tt\v tiov EAAtjvwv 
KOivu)viav £7T£7Tf)a/C£iv eyu) 4>iXt7T7rw. B. " If I had, 

for the lucre of Philip's gold, deprived the 
country of the Greek alliance." This is neither 
a literal nor a true translation. A. had just 
complained that the rest of Greece would not 
give Athens any assistance, either in money or 
in men, or in any other way ; and says, " If I 
had sold to Philip the means of preventing the 
confederacy of the Greeks ;" i. e. if I had been 
bribed by Philip to prevent, &c. 

P. 19. iraXai ttclvtzq wcrav e^ArjAey/uevoi : B. 
" the dispositions of them all were very easy to 
see." No doubt ; for the translation is, " the 
disposition of them all ;" or rather, " they had 
all been put to the test long since." 

Ibid. Siaj3aAAei tt\v iroXiv tcl fxiyiGTa tv oig 

t/zcvScrai. Does not the context show that the 
meaning is, " in his falsehoods he calumniates 
the state on points of the greatest importance," 
not, as B. translates, " he calumniates the country 
more than he does me ?" 

P. 21. tcl y^topia Tavd a vvv ovtoq Sieavpe, to 
^eppiov Kai to Mupnov /cat tt\v 'EpytffKTjv. B. 

"the places, which iEschines now affects to 
undervalue." Male, " the fortresses, which this 
fellow now nicknames in derision," alluding to 

b 2 



28 



the sneer of iEschines at the Stpptov rct^oc /cat 

AofuoTCov, Kai FipyiGKriv Kai M.ovpyi(JKr]V Kai Tavoc; 
Kai TaviSa, yji)pia y k. r. X. 

Ibid. aWa tl e^prjv fie ttoiuv ; jut) irpotjayuv 
ypcvpai tovq em tovQ 7)K0VTaq iv vplv SiaXsyOuxnv ; 
rj Qkav fxi) KaraveijULai tov apyjLTZKTOva avrolg /ceXev- 
aai\ aXX ev roiv Suoiv oj3oXoiv eQeupovv av, u julti 

tovt I ypa(j>rj ; B. " But what was I to do ? 
Was I to refuse access to men, who were come 
expressly for the purpose of addressing you, or 
to forbid the architect giving them a place as 
spectators ? [The English reader will ask where 
and of what ?] But had I not assigned them a 
place, they might have had it for two-pence." The 
more correct translation is : " But what ought I 
to have done ? Ought I to have proposed that 
it was not fitting to introduce to the assembly 
the ambassadors who had come expressly to 
enter into discussion with you ? [we should say, 
into negociation ; for negociation was then car- 
ried on by personal conference, and not, as now, 
by state papers,] or ought I to have enjoined the 
surveyor of the theatre not to assign them seats 
at the performances within it ? But for the 
price of two obols they would have procured 
seats among the spectators, supposing that de- 
cree had never been passed." The apy^ireicTtov 
was not the architect of the theatre, but rather 
the chief commissioner of the Athenian board of 



29 



works. He was the officer appointed to keep 
the theatre in repair, and to furnish the ma- 
chinery, but not the dresses and other properties, 
which were furnished by the choregi. And for 
this purpose, at one period, one obol, and at 
another two obols, constituted the fee paid him 
by each spectator. 

P. 22. * EKaTOfji(5aiu)VOQ ivy /cat vsa. B. " on 

the 13th of Hecatombaeon." Every schoolboy 
knows, or ought to know, that the ivv Kal via 
was the 30th, or last day, of the month. So, too, 

in p. 27, Maijuafcrr/jOiwvoc bleary a-movroQ, B. trans- 
lates the second of Msemacterion. He ought 
to have known that it was the twenty-first. 

Ibid. Tovg Se yeipoTOvriOevTag airoSrifiuv. B. 

" That these, being duly approved, be despatched 
w 7 ithout delay." Rather, "That they, having 
been elected by a show of hands, should leave 
the country without delay for whatever place," 
&c. 

Ibid, oqkovq \afiuv r£ Trap avrov /cat Sovvai sVt 
raiq <I>jUoAo-y rjjus va«c <rvvQy]Kaiq. B. " Exchange 

oaths of ratification with Philip, touching the 
treaty concluded." Rather, " on the terms 
already agreed upon. 

P. 23. ov yap av r}\par' avrwv irapovruv ^uwv, rj 
ovk av wpiciCofizv avrov, wore tt\q eipr^vrjg av Ce- 
?7/Ltapri7/C£c, /cat ovk av a/mtyorepa ziy^e /cat ttjv eiprjvrjv 

gal ra yvpla. B. " For either he would not have 

b3 



30 



touched that territory, had we been there, or he 
would not have sworn to the peace, and thus 
would not have obtained it ; so that he could 
not have had both, the peace and the posses- 
sions." B., in the note, turns grammatical 
critic, and would get rid of the av before &- 
\)fxapTr)Ku^ evidently not seeing that the av is 
necessary both to the sense and to the grammar. 
The translation should be thus : " For he would 
not have touched them, had we been present, 
or, if he had, we should not have exchanged a 
ratification of the treaty with him ; so that he 
would have lost the peace, and would not have 
obtained both advantages, — namely, peace and 
the possession of the fortresses " 

P. 25. St uiv airavT clttuAzto. B. " as proved 
the ruin of our affairs." Not so : " as produced 
the ruin of every thing ;" meaning the destruc- 
tion of the Phocians. See the words in a former 
clause of the sentence, 7rpo tov rovg Qwiceac 

awoXiaOai. 

Ibid, july) KarriyopriGavTOQ Aiaylvov jurjSev £%(*) 

ttiq ypa<j)r)s. B. "If iEschines had not gone 
into matter out of the four corners of the charge." 
A very vulgar and lawyerlike translation. A 
more literal and quite as lawyerlike a translation 
would have been, "If iEschines in his accu- 
sation had not travelled out of the indictment." 
P. 26. tt)q avaXyriaiag Kai Tr)g fiapvTtiTog airaX- 



31 



Xaynvai rr\Q rwv 0r?/3a/wv. B. "to be relieved 
from the inaction and the importunity of the 
Thebans." A marvellous Xitottjq for "getting 
rid of the heartlessness and oppression of the 
Thebans !" 

P. 27. svOvg, ovk tig fdaicpav. B. " instantly, 
and not after any interval." How much is the 
force of this sentence impaired by the insertion 
of the copulative conjunction, and the omission 
of the word " long" before " interval." 

Ibid, ttjv (Jiev cnriyOuav ttjv 7rpog Qrifiaiovg Kal 
QettclXovq ttj ttoXsi ytv&aOai, rrjv 8e \apiv rr\v virlp 

tljv ireirpayiJLtvwv ^iXlttttix). B. " The Thebans and 
Thessalians turned their hostility against this 
country, giving their good will to Philip in re- 
turn for his exploits." Balderdash : A. has just 
been complaining of the lurking dislike, which 
prevailed in Athens and other parts of Greece 
against the Thebans ; and he says : " The ill-will 
with which the Thebans and Thessalians were 
viewed, fell to the share of this country, whilst 
Philip became a favourite in consequence of the 
measures he had taken." 

Ibid. KaXAuT0€vr?c $>a\r}ptvg. B. " Callisthenes 
of Phalaris," and at the close of the same decree, 
" Callisthenes of Phalerea." Is it possible that 
Lord Brougham never heard of Phalerum ? " A 
year's age is heaped upon us" in reviewing 

b4 



32 



ignorance so crass as this. We are inclined to 
say to B. as Dr. Bentley said to Boyle a century 
or more ago, " Your Phalaris shall stick close 
to you longer than you wish it." 

Ibid. KaWieOevrig htts, " on the report of C." 
No—" on the motion of C." 

P. 28. svoyog £<tt(o toiq rr)q irpoSoGiag kmTlfl'lOtQ, 
eav [if] ti aSvvctTOv eiriSuKvwj 7rtpi eavrov bv. B. 
" shall suffer the yimishrnent of traitors, unless 
he proves that he lay under some incapacity 
to obey." — No — "let him be subject to the 
penalfe of treason [i. e~ banishment, or death], 
unless he shows that there was some impossi- 
bility to prevent him." There is some differ- 
ence between incapacity and impossibility. For 
instance: Lord B. 5 s incapacity to translate A. 
correctly is self-apparent on the face of this 
volume : but we shall not say that it is an im- 
possibility for him to do it, until we have seen 
his next attempt, after he has been a year or 
two under the tuition of some " plagosus 
Orbilius." 

Ibid, o em twv o7rXwv orpar^yoc* B. " the 
general on duty." His lordship gives no autho- 
rity for this translation ; and after the note of 
Taylor, and his reference to Pollux,, we are in- 
clined to think his lordship wrong here again. 
G ern twv owXwv (STparr\yoQ is the Same as o £7ri 



33 



Tuiv onXiThiv (TTpctTYiyog, and is often opposed to o 
67Ti twv linrkuyv GTparr\yoq 9 the former being the 
general of the infantry, and the latter that of 
the cavalry. 

P. 29. OvZlv 7rp07£prj<7£T£ £%li) TOV E(j)9aKEVai aSi- 

kovvtzq. B. M You will only get ^g/ore me by 
being the first wrongdoers." This is not cor- 
rect. Philip was too crafty a politician to admit, 
even by an inference, that he was a wrongdoer 
at all. Translate, "you will be first in nothing, 
except in having the start in injustice." Or, 
more shortly, " you will only be the first to 
commit injustice." 

Ibid. 'Akovete, tog Gatywq SrjAot Kai §iopi£srai ev 
Ty TTpog vjuag eiriGToXy, wpog roue eclvtov avfAjidyovQ) 
on ravra eju) 7T£7roir/fca. We should have thought 
it impossible for any ordinary man to misunder- 
stand this passage : but then B. is an extraordi- 
nary man. It is literally this : — " Hear how 
distinctly he declares and defines his meaning to 
his own allies in this letter addressed to you, 
asserting ' It is I who have done all this.' ' For 
the purpose of rendering the meaning clear, we 
have changed, very unnecessarily, the collocation 
of the words ; a matter, which it may be as well 
to remind Lord B. can seldom be done in trans- 
lating Demosthenes without material injury to 
the force of the sense. B. translates it thus : 
" Hear how distinctly he declares and explains 

b5 



34 



himself in this letter addressed to yourselves, 
addressed to his allies." His note in justification 
of this reading, though short, is the very quint- 
essence of ignorance and absurdity. 

P. 30. o $evp airayytiXag ra \pevdj} Kai (pevaKiGag 

vuag. B. " The man, who is still making you 
false reports, still deluding you." ' And is the 
aorist then so little known V A. refers to the 
false report which iEschines sent home from his 
embassy in Macedonia : he is speaking of his 
past, not of his present, attempts, to humbug 
the Athenians. 

P. 31. £7T£iSi] yap ££ij7rarrj(x0£ jjlIv vjuiug viro tov $t- 

Xl7T7TOU Sia TOVTWV TWV £V TCUQ TTpzafiuGLlQ IAl<jQ<*)GaVT(i)V 

tavrovQ Kai ovo£V aXriOeg vjuiv a7rayy£i\avTU)v. B. 

u When you were circumvented by Philip, 
through those hirelings of his, whom you had 
sent as ambassadors," &c. Every English reader 
would suppose from this translation that iEsch. 
and his colleagues were hirelings of Philip before 
they were sent on this embassy. But A. says, 
"After you had been completely deceived by 
Philip, through the agency of those, who during 
their embassy let themselves out to him for hire" 
&c. 

P. 32. TpQTTQV TIVCL £/C 7ToAXoU TToXb/ULOVJULBVOI. 

B. " Already attacked by Philip," losing there- 
by the whole point of the sentence : " Although 
for a long time previously war in disguise had 



35 



been made upon them by Philip ;" for such is 
evidently the import of rpoirov rivd. 

Ibid, ore -yap 7T£puwv o <J>/Xi7T7roc fcarecrrpe^cro. 

B. in a note takes great credit to himself for his 
translation of this passage, which, nevertheless, 
appears to us, to smack somewhat of the ludi- 
crous. " For when he was striding all around, 
subduing the Illyrians," &c. He tells us that 
this 7repuu)v is an impressive word, rendered well 
by the Latin grassans, to which our language has 
no very sufficient parallel. And this impressive 
word he translates as the reader sees. Now we 
doubt whether the stride, which B. has given to 
Philip, is at all alluded to by A. We would 
translate, " For when in his marches and coun- 
termarches in every direction he was subduing," 
&c. 

P. 33. al Se 7roXeic evoaovv, twv jusv kv Tto 7roXi- 

TEVSaOai KCll TTpCLTTUV $b)pO$OKOVVTU)V Kai SlCMJiOEipG- 
fxkvb)V E7TI ^prjjUCKTt, TWV ^6 l$lb)TU)V KCll 7ToWu)V 

Ta fjilv ov 7rpoop(i)juisv(x)v 9 ra Se ry KaO' -njuepav 
pa<jTU)vy Kai cr^oXp SsXea^o/itvcov, Kai toiovtovi ti 
ttclQoq ttsttovOotojv airavTiov, 7r\rjv ovk k(f> savrovc; 
zkckjtmv oiofieviov ro Savov T)Z>uv 9 aWa Sta 

TtOV STEpd)V KIV^UVIOV TCL ECLVTWV Cl(J(j)a\u)Q GyYJGElV, 

orav fiovXuvTcu, &c. We translate this passage 
thus : " Public feeling was diseased in every 
state ; for the public men, who had the direc- 
tion of their councils, and the execution of their 

b6 



36 



measures, were receiving bribes, and had yielded 
to the corruption of money, and private indivi- 
duals, in great numbers, were, in some cases, 
blind to the dangers of the future, and in others 
were allured by the bait of pleasure and repose 

from day to day. [This is the wvyjav a-rrpay^ova 

of Thucydides; the dolcefar ?iiente of the Italians 
— " ease with nothing to do."] All were under 
the influence of some such feeling, but each 
imagined that the calamity would not fall upon 
themselves; on the contrary, they anticipated 
that by the dangers of others they would be 
enabled to place their own affairs in a state of 
unassailable security whenever they pleased. 
Hence, I think it happened that the people in 
every state [7rXr/0£cnv, the people, as opposed to 
the oAtyoi, or nobility ; cf. Mitch. Ach. 272, 
and his note on the 7tXt?0oc. Aristotle, Polit. vi. 
c. 4, uses Tr\r)Qn for the rabble : Ta S' aXXa irXriQri, 

et wv al Xoi7raJ Si^io/epar/cu gvvzgtclgiv , 7roXXw <j>av- 

Xorepa tovtwv, and I am almost inclined to think 
that ttXtiOsgiv here should be translated "rabble,"] 
found, that as a retribution for their great and un- 
seasonable inactivity, they had lost their liberty ; 
and that those who were at the head of affairs, 
and were fancying that they were selling every 
thing but themselves, discovered that they had 
sold themselves first of all. For, instead of 
friends and guests, titles which were given to 



37 

them when they were accepting the bribes of Philip, 
they are now called parasites, hated of heaven, 
and every other name of infamy which befits 
their condition." We now submit Lord B.'s 
translation : — " But all the states were infatuated, 
and while the ministers and magistrates of some 
were corrupted, and bought with a price, in 
others, neither individuals, nor the people \_twv §e 
IShdtwv Ka\ 7roXXwv, not t(jjv 7roXXwv,] showed 
any provident circumspection, but all were taken 
with the ephemeral bait of indolence and ease, 
and all the states became so stricken with infatu- 
ation, as to believe that nothing could befall 
themselves, but that they could work out their 
own safety by other people's perils. It thus 
came to pass, as I conceive, that the people lost 
their independence [Mr. Mitchell has well ob- 
served, in one of his plays of Aristophanes, that 
this word is as much unknown to the Greek 
language as its spirit was to their minds,] 
through extreme and inopportune sloth, while 
the leading men, and those who designed to 
sell every thing but themselves, were found to 
have sold themselves first of all. Instead of 
friends and guests, names which they prostituted 
for the lucre of gain, they must now be content to 
hear themselves [simply clkovovgiv] called para- 
sites, persons accursed, and whatever else fits 
them best." 



38 



P. 36. lu)\oKpa(Tiav Tiva jiov rr]Q Trovypiaq tt\q 
eavTOv kcli tiov aSiKt)jULaT(ov kcit a ovce 8a <rac. Both in 

his translation, and in his note, B. is quite 

Wrong. The construction is (XKeSacrac Kara /uov, 

" he who has spirted into my face the crapulous 
mixture of his own villainy and crimes." And 
this is in keeping with the rest of the sentence ; 
for it is given as the reason why A. wishes to 
rid himself of it [a7ro\v(raor0ai]. B. translates 
thus : " his having poured out in our faces the 
crapulous remains [The Etym. Mag. says, swXo- 
Kpaaia means nothing more than the ancient 
mixture or mess] of his own profligacy and 
crimes, made it indispensably necessary that I 
should justify myself," &c. B., who is a right- 
good classical merry-andrew, asks, " What right 
has Stock to translate KaraaK^aaaq 'evomuit?' 
Had not A. Greek enough to have said cgqjuecrac, 
if he had chosen so strong — too strong — a 
figure ?" No : A. would not have been guilty 
of the offence against grammar which B. has put 
upon him. He would, at any rate, have written 
the aorist participle of e^efxeay ! k^kcjaq. 

P. 37. Kai VVV H7T£ 7TOV XtytoV, " O TY)V 'AXt- 

£av$pov £eviav oveiSilwv ipoU* B. " In one part 
of his speech he described me as having con- 
sidered Alexander's hospitality a shame." With 
this translation the whole point of the subse- 
quent sentence is lost. A. says, " In some part 



39 



of his speech iEschines used the expression, 
! My adversary reproaches me with the hospi- 
tality of Alexander.' What ! / reproach you 
with the hospitality of Alexander ! Whence did 
you derive it ? How did you earn it ?" 

P. 38. anrivsyKS 7rpog tov apyovra irapavofxwv 
ypa<pfiv Kara Krr^at^wvroc;. B. "brought before 

the Archon Ctesiphon," &c. Stuff! iEschines 
did no such thing. " He lodged with the Ar- 
chon an indictment against Ctesiphon for having 
proposed an illegal decree." Mr. Mitchell, in 
describing the progress of an Athenian action, 
[Wasps, v. 13.] uses this expression, " to this 
authority;" which he before states to be the 
archon, the six Thesmothets, &c, " whichever it 
might be, the plaintiff went bill in hand, (a7ro- 
(ptpiov syKXri/uia, Atj£iv, ypa^r^v,) and the magistrate, 
being satisfied that the summons (7rpoc™:Ar?<nc) 
had been duly served, was, in technical phrase, 
put in motion, and the day settled on which the 
two litigants should appear before him." We 
recommend Lord B. to read the whole of the 
Wasps of Aristophanes before he again meddles 
with that of which he evidently knows nothing, 
— we mean, the constitution of the civil and 
criminal courts of Attica. 

Ibid, wq apa Sei GTttyavuoai Arfyuoo-Ocvrjv ygvaio 
<jT£<f>avw, Kai avayopevaai kv rw Oearpio, Aiovvgioic; 
roig MzyaXoig, TpaywSote tcaivoiq. We really 



40 



could not give credit to our eyesight, when we 
saw how B. distorted this passage in a vain 
attempt to improve it. It really is translated 
thus : — " That Demosthenes should be crowned 
with a golden crown, and that it should be pro- 
claimed in the Theatre, while the new greater 
Dionysian tragedians acted." What ! did Lord 
B. never hear in his boyhood of the " great 
Dionysiac festival?" And who besides himself 
ever heard of " the new greater Dionysian trage- 
dians ?" We will venture to predict, that there 
is not a lad in the fifth form at Eton, who will 
not tell him that the translation here should be, 
" at the Dionysian festival during the contest of 
the new tragedians," for so iEschines fills up the 
ellipse Tpay(*)$wv KaivCov aywvitofJL&vwv. Why, the 
principal offence of which Ctesiphon was guilty, 
was, that he had proposed to give the crown at 
the great Dionysiac festival, where all Greece 
w r as present. Had the crown been given at the 
Lensean festival, the offence would have been 
less ; for then, as Aristophanes informs us, none 
of the tributaries or allies of Athens, and espe- 
cially no foreigners, were allowed to be present, 
aXX ecrfiev avroi vvv ye TrepieTTTKJfxevoi. 

P. 39. in Se jur? avayopeveiv rov ars(j>avov ev Tip 

BeaTpi*) AiowGioig, TjoaywSwv ry icaivy. B. " More- 
over the crown ought not to be proclaimed in 
the theatre by the new tragedians." We have 



41 



a different version, and again a wrong one, of 
these words at p. 58, " to proclaim the corona- 
tion in the theatre by means of the new Diony- 
sian performers." Need we have stronger proof 
that " a man may have a great name, and yet 
not be a giant ?" 

Ibid, tov v-n-EvOvvov (jTtfyavovv. B. " a public 
accountant to be crowned. " Bah ! vnzvOwog is, in 
our phraseology, a public officer, who has not got 
his accounts passed by, or his quietus, from the 
Exchequer. It is also something more. It is an 
expression used of a magistrate, who has not 
undergone the scrutiny of his official conduct 
before the regular authorities, and, therefore, has 
not obtained his acquittal from blame. 

P. 41. eav ug EAXrjvi/cde irpa^ug Kal \6yovg 

sjunricTb). B. " if I refer to my measures and 
my speeches upon the affairs of Greece." No : 
" if I enter upon the sayings and doings of the 
Greeks." It is almost a repetition of the phrase 
of Aristophanes in The Knights, v. 38, rote i ina 

Kai Toig wpayfxacn. 

Ibid. The mistranslation thus noticed renders 
another necessary. " He it is that has rendered 
it necessary for me to enter upon the whole sub- 
ject of my policy and conduct," B. The w T ords 

01 A. are, Ouroc hariv o Tovg wept airavTijJV rwv ejuoi 
7r£7roAir£VjU€vu)v /ecu Tre7rpayiuiiv(jjv Xoyovg outHovq Kal 
avayKaiovg ry ypa<pij TTeiroir}KU)g, and may be thus 



42 



translated : " he it is that has rendered the ac- 
count of my policy and conduct germane and 
necessary to [the defence against] this indict- 
ment." 

P. 43. Kat tovtwv Xoyov Trap s/jlov Xaj3£iv ; i. e. to 

receive an account of all this from me ; and not, 
as B. translates, to " call me to account for what 
was done," quce res est prorsus alia. 

Ibid. YIoTepov avrriv kyjpr]v, Kiayivq, to <j>p6vr)fna 
a({)£i(Tav> Kai rrjv afyav Ttjv avrrig, kv ttj GarraXcov Kal 
AoXofftov ra^Ei, avy xar a KTaoOai<$>i\'nnr 10 ttjv twv'EX- 
\rjvtov apyriv, k.t.X. B. translates, "Was it fitting 
iEschines that this country should bring down 
her great spirit, so worthy of herself, join Thessa- 
lians and Dolopians, help Philip in his designs 
upon the mastery of all Greece?" &c. Aij3oi! 
To say nothing of the other blunders in this pas- 
sage, Lord B. must be entirely unaware of the 
utter contempt in which the Thessalians (as wit- 
ness the 01 KaraTTTvaroi GerraXoi, to GtrraXov go- 
QiGjuia, the Thessalonian slave-dealers, the Thessa- 
lian magicians, the Thessalian bawds) were held 
by the rest of Greece, or he would not have 
slurred over the words kv r?j Qbtt. Kal AoX. ra£a 
as unemphatic. But this is B.'s usual style of 
translation. He is a most consummate artist in 
making great things out of nothings, and in re- 
ducing great things to nothings in return. Trans- 
late, " Was it fitting that this country, abandon- 



43 



ing all high feeling, and all sense of its own in- 
herent dignity, in the ranks of the Thessalians 
and Dolopeans, [and therefore as auxiliaries to 
secondary agents, not as principals,] should assist 
Philip in his endeavours to acquire supremacy 
over the Greeks ?" 

P. 46. rj ri tov gv]u(5ov\ov eSet \syeiv, tov 'AOri- 
vpnv, efie ; In this short sentence there are three 
points on which A. places emphasis. The ques- 
tion is, first, what the av^ovXoq of any state 
ought to propose ; then, what the avufiovXog at 
Athens ; and, last of all, what A. with a due 
regard to his own station and character ? This 
is an instance of that * magic in the arrangement 
of words," which Mitford has noticed as peculiar 
even in the Greek language to the powers of 
Demosthenes. B. loses all the three points in the 
following lame and impotent translation of this 
brief climax, — " But what was I to urge or to 
propound ! in the councils of Athens ?" 

Ibid. " I who knew that my country . . . had 
lavished [A., more plainly, " expended"] more 
blood and more treasure for her own renown and 
the interests of all Greece, than any other state 
had ever risked for its individual benefit" Why 
has Lord B. wandered from his original? It 
would have been quite as readable English, and 
much closer to the Greek text, to have said, 
" for the interests of all the Greeks, than the 



44 



rest of the Greeks had ever expended for them- 
selves." 

P. 47. Lord B. has again lost sight of a rhe- 
torical antithesis of A. We would translate it 
thus : " This at least was a proposition which no 
one would have had the hardihood to advance ; 
that it was fitting that in a man bred at Pella, 
a fortress at that time obscure and insignificant, 
there should be such innate magnanimity as to 
make him long for universal sway over Greece, 
and to form in his mind plans for accomplishing 
it ; and that in you, the men of Athens, who day 
by day in every thing you both see and hear 
behold the memorials of the valor of your an- 
cestors, there should be such abject cowardice of 
spirit as to let the freedom of Greece slip, will- 
ingly and of your own accord, out of your own 
keeping into that of Philip, — that [I repeat, is 
what] no man would have dared to assert." 
Such is a literal and verbatim translation of the 
original, in which, as in every other passage we 
have translated, we have endeavoured to be 
faithful rather than spirited and elegant. Re- 
ferring the reader to the original, we now sub- 
join B.'s version : " Yet even, then, no one 
would have dared say that in a man bred at 
an obscure and paltry town like Pella, such 
magnanimity could be engendered as to make 
him entertain the desire of subjugating Greece, or 



45 



form in his mind such a plan [t^q rwv 'EAXrjvwv 

apyj]Q kiriQvfiii<jai Kai tovt ziq tov vow e/mpaXeaQai] ; 

while in you, who are of Athens, and day by day 
contemplate the achievements of your ancestors 
in speeches and in spectacles ! ! ! such poorness of 
spirit could be bred, that willingly and of your 
own accord you should surrender to him the 
liberties of Greece. That is what no man w T ould 
have dared to say." 

P. 48. o tt\v Evj3otav <y(j>eTef>i£6fievog is poorly 
translated by " he who seizes on Euboea," and 
still worse at p. 67, " when the Thebans claimed 
Euboea." The phrase means to seize and keep 
as one's own. But this is the way in which B. 
is perpetually emasculating A. Burke in one 
of his eloquent declamations against the French 
republic endeavoured to naturalize this word 
among us. He talked of the French spheterizing 
Holland : but we cannot at this moment turn to 
the passage. The word " clutch" comes nearer 
than " seize" to the Greek w r ord : for it conveys 
a notion that the party seizing is determined to 
retain his hold. 

P. 50. In this decree the noble translator is 
guilty of many errors both of commission and 
omission. He has again translated EvfiovXog 
sIttsv " on the report," and not " on the motion" 

of Ellbulus. The clause S7T£i§?7 TrooariyysiXav ol 

GTpaTvyol kv tij e/cKArjcria, which is a recital of the 



46 



channel through which the government had 
gained information, or " a report" of the injury, 
for which they were seeking redress, is entirely 
omitted in B.'s version. Eubulus proposed that 
the Prytanees and the Strategi should be re- 
sponsible for two measures ; first, that the senate 
should be called together, and then that ambas- 
sadors should be chosen by the people. There 
can be no mistake as to that being the object of 
his motion ; yet B., in most Lethsean oblivious- 
ness of the constitution of Athens, imposes on 
the Prytanees and Strategi the duty not only of 
calling together the senate, but also of naming 
the ambassadors to Philip. 

P. 51. l§la ayvufiovovGiv. B. "have clandes- 
tinely broken faith." Fiddle-de-dee ! Will B. 
quote a single instance in which ayvwpovuv has 
the strong meaning which he has given to it, or 
in which ISm is synonymous with Xaflpa ? IS/a 
evidently means, for their private advantage. 
Mitford translates " have committed wilful out- 
rage," which, though not quite correct, is better 
than B. 

P. 52. Demosthenes here reads a decree, of 
which we subjoin the following translation : 
" In the archonship of Neocles, on the last day 
of the month Boedromion, on the motion of the 
council, the Prytanees and Strategi proposed for 
discussion [ky^^jxaTiaav] the proceedings of the 



47 



Ecclesia, after reporting ' that it has seemed 
good to the people to choose ambassadors to 
treat with Philip respecting the restoration of 
our ships, and to give them instructions/ and 
also [proposed for discussion] the decrees of the 
assembly. And they chose as ambassadors A, 
B, C, &c. During the prytaneeship of the tribe 
of Hippothoon, on the proposition of Aristophon 
of Colyttus, the president of the council for that 
day" (7rpofSpog). B. thus translates it : " In the 
archonship of Neocles, the last day of Boedro- 
mion the Prytanees and Strategi reported what 
had passed in the assembly, to wit, that the 
people resolved to send ambassadors to Philip, 
and to communicate the instructions and the 
decrees of the assembly. [It will be seen that 
B. omits all translation of the technical word 
f^pityiaricrav, and that he translates ra zk tt?c e/ocAr?- 
aiaq xpYi^LG^ara " to communicate the instructions 
and decrees of the assembly."] There were 
chosen as ambassadors A, B, C, &c. In the 
presidency of the tribe HippoTHOONTES, on the 
proposition of Aristophon of Colyttus" [no 
translation of the word 7rpo£§poc]. Now in B.'s 
translation of this xpriQurfia it is curious to observe 
that there is nothing decreed. Next, it is re- 
markable how ignorant B. shows himself to be 
of the Athenian mode of legislation. The usual 
mode was for the council to frame a irpofiov- 

3 



48 



Xevjma and to propose it (^prj^ari&tv) through the 
agency of some individual in concert with it, to 
the Ecclesia. If carried in the Ecclesia, it be- 
came a -^^iGfjia. But the 'EjcjcXqa/a, though 
they exercised the privilege rarely, could also 
initiate a decree, as we see from this oration 
that it did during the commotion which followed 
the capture of Elataea. In that case, it was 
necessary that the decree should be reported to 
the council, and should be assented to by that 
body. For the assent of both the council and 
the assembly was required to make a decree le- 
gal, as we may learn from the phrase not un- 
usual in A. yzipoTOvr\Quar)Q tt)q (3ov\tiq ko.1 tov 
Syi/ulov. It is also clear that B. has no notion of 
the difference between the Prytanees generally, 
and their president fTnorarrjc, or 7rp6^pog 9 who 
was changed every day. If he would read the 
Thesmoph. of Aristoph. v. 295 — 397, he would 
have a clearer idea than he has at present of the 
agency through which a decree was carried from 
its first proposition to its final sanction : and if 
he w r ould read the able argument prefixed to 
the speech of Demosthenes, contra Androt. p. 
590 — 5, he would be fully informed respecting 
the mode in which the Prytanees and the Pro- 
edroi were severally elected. But an eagle, like 
Lord B., disdains to catch at flies like these, 
and leaves them, as unworthy of his notice, 



49 



to the dull tribe of historians and verbal cri- 
tics. 

P. 53. £K iravTog rpoirov (3ov\ojuL8Vd)v tov Cr)fiov 
avn rrjc vvv vTrapyovarjg wpog bjule (piXtaQ, tov 7ro\£- 

imov avakafiuv. B. thus, " who at all times are 
desirous to plunge the people into a war, con- 
trary to the relations of amity prevailing between 
us." B. has again lost sight of the meaning of 
the preposition dvA, and of the force of ava in 
composition. " Who are desirous, by any 
means, to make the people plunge again into 
war, instead of [maintaining] the amity which 
now subsists between them and me. 

Ibid. Kal vnoXajuifiavovGiv at/roi£ to toiovto 

irpoaoSov eo-etxflai. B. " from this course they ex- 
pect to profit." We find from B.'s note that 
Leland translates to toiovto " such a rupture," 
and we think that Leland is right. " And they 
anticipate that to them such a rupture would be 
[productive of ] a regular income." In Aristo- 
phanes to, irpoaiovTa is used for the " annual 
revenue." 

P. 55. OTS 7TOWTOV U£ UeXoTTOVVT^GOV 7TapE$VSTO. 

" The moment he was seen creeping up towards 
Peloponnesus," B. In a note he says, napa Svo) 
— can he find such a word ? — is from §v<o "to 
come up ! ! ! " " napa 8 v to is to creep up to a 
level." This is drivelling even below the ordi- 
nary drivelling of a dowager Chancellor. Aris- 
en 



50 



tophanes is fond of this word Silo^ai in composi- 
tion, and wherever he uses it, the idea of doing 
a thing stealthily is connected with it. We have 
here an imperfect tense denoting, as usual, the 
conatus. Translate, " when he w r as first making 
his attempt to steal into the Peloponnese." 

Ibid. B. translates, " If they neglected your 
repeated warnings, they had the persuasion that 
you not only had their interests at heart, but were 
sagacious and prophetic men." The literal trans- 
lation of what A. says is much more forcible than 
the far from literal translation of B. A. is speak- 
ing of the different policy pursued by those states 
whom Philip had injured, and he says, " Those, 
who then followed your counsels, secured abun- 
dantly their own salvation. Those who neglected 
them, were haunted by the frequent recollection of 
what you had foretold, and were convinced that you 
were not only their sincere friends, but also men 
of prudence and prophetic sagacity." 

P. 56. oiScic ayvoa,/eai ttclvtwv rj/acrra er v' 01 yap 
irapa rov KXeirapyov Kai tov <S>i\igti$ov tots irpsafisiq 
devp afyucvovfxsvoi Trapa croi KaTsXvov, Kiayivr), Kai av 
Trpov^svsiq clvtiov* ovg i) fxsv 7roAic wc syvpovq . . a7r- 

T?Aa<^£• (jo\ S* r\aav <j>i\oi. B. " No one is ignorant, 
and you, iEschines, least of all men. For the 
ambassadors who came to us from Clitarchus and 
Philistides lived in your house, and you did the 
honours of the city to them. The state, indeed, 



51 



sent them away as enemies, yet they were your 
friends." We humbly submit that this transla- 
tion fritters away the strength of the original. A 
more literal version of it is subjoined. " No one 
is ignorant, and, least of all men, you. For the 
ambassadors who were then sent by Clitarchus 
and Philistides, on arrival here made your house 
their home, iEschines ; you, too, were dispensing 
to them the rights of hospitality when the city 
drove them away as enemies. To you, however, 
they were friends." It is quite evident that B. 
could not translate, in its full force, the word 
cnrri\a<je 9 which, in modern diplomacy, would be 
ordering them " to quit the territories of Athens 
forthwith," after he had spoken of " the honours " 
which the city had commissioned iEschines to 
show them. It would have been dissembling 
their hate for the purpose of kicking them sub- 
sequently down stairs. 

P. 58. Dem. asks whether any Athenian 
knows of (not conceives, as B. translates) any 
disgrace having befallen the city in consequence 
of this decree, or of any scorn or ridicule 
[^XeuatTjuov rj -ysXwra], which iEschines said 
would befall it if he were crowned. B., as usual, 
misapprehends the two words I have quoted, 
and asks, " Is there any thing despicable or 
laughable in the decree ?" which is quite foreign 
from the sense of the passage. By-the-by, it is 

c2 



52 



rather singular that B., who is himself so great 
a master of coprology, should have any diffi- 
culty about translating the terms Ao(Sof>/a, 7rpo- 
7rr}\aKi<jjULog y ^Xeua(T/uoc, &c, which are so many 
subdivisions of his own great art. We have 
heard that in one of the recently unrolled MSS. 
of Herculaneum this sentence was found dis- 
tinctly written :0 8c IZpovyafioc rrjv K07rpo\oyiav, 
7) Se K07rpo\oyia tov Upovya/xov GtyiTtpiCzrai* 

Ibid. To us the following sentence is not 
very intelligible in English, and if any meaning 
can be extracted from it, it is very evidently not 
the meaning of A. " Wherefore down to the 
time when these things were transacted, it is 
confessed that my measures were ever conducive 
to the public good, whensoever in your delibera- 
tions / could prevail in favour of the decrees 
which I propounded ; that when my decrees 
were acted upon, crowns were bestowed on the 
country and on me, and that you offered up 
sacrifices and thanksgivings to the gods for the 
fortunate conduct of your affairs." A. literally 
translated is as follows : — " Up then to the 
time at which these transactions occurred, I am 
admitted on all occasions to have adopted mea- 
sures which were most conducive to the in- 
terests of the state ; and this is proved by the 
triumphant support which, when you were in 
council, was rendered to every speech I made, 



53 



and to every decree I proposed ; by the execu- 
tion which was subsequently given to every 
decree that was passed, and by the gift of crowns 
to the city, to me, and to you all, which resulted 
therefrom ; and, last of all, by your having made 
sacrifices and solemn processions to the gods 
(7rpo<7oSoi), under the conviction that these were 
really advantages," 

P. 59. erepov Kara rrjc 7roXcwc £7riT£i^i(7^uov 

zlr)Tu. B. " He sought out some new mode of 
beleaguering our state." This by no means 
conveys the signification of the word fViTa^KTjuoc, 
which is pregnant with meaning. This is more 
like it : " He looked about for another [military] 
post, from which he could at once command, 
and make inroads upon, the city." Thucydides 
states that Megara was an kiriTel \kjiq against 
Athens. So, too, at the close of the Pelopon- 
nesian war, was Deceleia 1 . 

P. 61. Aafj,ayt}TOQ kv ra 'AX la kAs^cv, £/c rag 

1 A learned correspondent of the Editor of the Times 
suggests, and we think correctly, that, if the meaning of A. 
had been such as the Reviewer states it to be, the word used 
would have been e7nTei\KTfxa 9 not kTtvrtiyiaixov, " I would 
rather translate," says he, " ' another mode of annoyance,' 
i. e. by stopping the supplies of corn, than * another military 
post from which he could at once command and make 
inroads upon the city.' For Byzantium and the Thracian 
cities do not by any means answer the latter description." 

c3 



54 



/3wXac Aaj3wv pinpav. B. " Damagetus reported 
to the senate, having obtained leave to speak." 
Rather, " Damagetus proposed in the assembly, 
having obtainedjfrom the council leave to speak" 
Ibid. SsvSpoKoweovTOQ, " cut down their timber." 
Dr. Arnold, in his Thucyd. ii. 75, has drawn 
a very just distinction between $h$pa and ££Aa, 
wherein he shows that the former means fruit- 
trees, principally figs and olives, and the latter, 
timber and forest trees. The translation should 
therefore be, " cut down our fruit-trees? which 
was a very serious injury to those who lived so 
much on figs and olives. The context, too, shows 
that it must have been^/h^-trees, for the decree 
thanks the Athenians for a supply of provisions. 

Ibid. 7r6Qo$OV 7TOTI TCLV (3lt)XcLV Kdl TOV Sdj&OV 

irpdroiq jusra tcl lepa. B. " admission to the senate 
and assemblies near the ministers of religion.''' No; 
" immediately after the sacred rites ;" meaning 
the sacrifices, prayers, and curses with which the 
assemblies were opened. What these were is 
very minutely described in the Ecclesiazusse and 
Thesmophoriazusse of Aristophanes. The privi- 
lege granted to the Athenians by these words was, 
that of having their business first attended to. 

P. 63. T7\v te rr\q ttoXzioq KaXoKay'aOiav kcu rr\v 

fyiX'nnrov KCLKiav. B. " the unsullied integrity of 
Athens, and the iniquity of Philip." It is more 
difficult to say what KaXoicayaOia is, than to say 



55 



what it is not. The context shows that in this 
passage it is something very different from " un- 
sullied integrity." I should rather translate, 
" the noble and magnanimous spirit of Athens, 
and the mean and wicked spirit of Philip." 

Ibid, ov t'l yevoir av alayjiov r? fiiapojTepov ; B. 

" Than which, what could be conceived more 
scandalous, more mean /" A mean translation 
with a vengeance. 

P. 64. /ecu yap av$pa [S/a, Kai woXiv Koivy, irpoq 
ra KaWiGTa twv v7rapyovTU)V au Sel irupaadai ra Xoi- 

ira TTparrav. " For a man individually, and a 
state collectively, ought always to endeavour to 
make their future conform with the noblest of 
their past exploits." Not, as B. translates, " for 
it becomes individuals in their private concerns, 
and the state in public affairs, to shape their 
subsequent conduct in consistency with the 
brightest passages in their former lives ! ! " 

P. 65. TWV TOTS A0t]Vai(OV 7ToXX CLV SyOVThJV 

juivYi<jiKaKri<jai Kai K.opiv6ioig Kai Qrifiaioig twv irspi 
tov AskeXbikov ttoXsjxov 7rpay9svTiov. B. " At a 
moment, when you had many grounds of com- 
plaint against the Corinthians and Thebans for 
their conduct in the Decelian war." The lan- 
guage of A. is much more forcible. " When the 
Athenians of that day might have reproached both 
the Corinthians and Thebans with many grievous 
injuries inflicted by their conduct in the Dece- 

c4 



56 



lian war." B. by no means rises up to the 
height of A.'s argument. See Mitchell's Clouds 
of Aristophanes, v. 959, for the illustration of 
the phrase jxv^aiKaKuv in the sense of " to re- 
proach with injury," and an excellent note of 
the learned Thiersch (edit. Lips. 1830) on Plut. 

V. 1443, jut) fJivr)(Wcaicfi(jyQ, a av <S>v\rjv KdTeXafiec. 

IMd. KCLITOI TOTE TClVTa hjltyOTEpa Ov6 V7TEp £U- 

spyeruv eirolovv. " And yet both those expe- 
ditions our ancestors at that time undertook." 
Not as B. " this the people did." 

Ibid. Tlspag jllsv yap airaaiv avQpwiroiQ egti rov 
fiiov OavaroQ, kclv ev oik'kjkm rtq avrov KaOeip^ag 
Ttjpr)' Sei Se tovc; ayaOovg av^pag EyyEipEiv fiEv 
awcKriv aei roiq fcaXoic 5 T"nv ayaQr\v irpofiaWofAEVovQ 
kXiri^a* <f)Epuv S o rt av o Qeoq §i$io, yEwaiwq. 

This magnificent "common-place" is thus de- 
based by Lord B. : — " For death happens to all 
men at the last, even if they flee for safety to 
the cellar: but the brave must ever attempt 
glorious deeds, animated by fair hope, and boldly 
resolved to endure whatever lot Heaven may 
send." How much tinsel of his own has B. here 
substituted for the solid bullion of A. ! We 
despair of equalling the nervous brevity of the 
original; but we submit the following translation 
as closer to the original than Lord B.'s : " To 
every man the bound of life is death, even 
though he keep himself barred up within his 



57 



own chamber. It, therefore, behoves the brave, 
arming themselves with the hope of good speed, 
as with a buckler, never to bate one jot in their 
efforts to achieve all honourable exploits, but to 
endure any fate which Heaven may reserve for 
them with the resolution and courage of men." 
yevvaiuQ literally, " worthy of their breed," 

P. 67. pri^av wv rJSi/crj<70£, kv otq siriGTZvOrjTe u7ro- 

Xoyiaafjizvoi. "Taking into your consideration 
none of the injuries which you had received at 
the time when those who inflicted them reposed 
confidence in you." Lord B. in his translation 
uses much stronger language than this : " Nor 
did you exact any reparation for their injuries 
from those who now put their trust in you." 

P. 69. KaiToi iroaa y^pi)fxara rovq riyzfiovag twv 
<7UjUjuofuwv, r) rovq SsvTtpovq kcli rpirovg oiaaOi /uloi 
SiSovcu, ware juaAiora fxev /jltj Oeivai jue rov vofxov 
rovrov, ft $s jultj, Kara/3aXovra /us kav kv virwfxoaia ; 

This is one of the most obscure and difficult 
passages in the wepl 2r€</>avov, and B. passes over 
the difficulties and obscurities of it, as might be 
expected, pede sicco. His translation is, " How 
much think you the first class of citizens, or 
those in the second, or even in the third rank, 
would have given me not to carry this law, 
[why is fid\i<jTa untranslated?] or, if I must, 
then that I should suffer it to be frustrated by 
taking the oath of postponement ?" From this 

c5 



58 



translation, which is unaccompanied by any 
note, the English reader would obtain a very 
erroneous notion of the original, and would 
never imagine that it contained any allusion to 
the whole financial policy of Athens, which was 
involved in the Symmoriae, and its various divi- 
sions and subdivisions. It is a subject into 
which we purposely decline to enter ; but every 
reader of Mitford's Greece is aware of the diffi- 
culties with which, according to that learned 
and laborious historian, it is surrounded. At 
any rate B. should have inserted a note to warn 
English readers that they were not to attach 
the same idea to what he calls the first, second, 
and third class of citizens in Athens, that 
they would attach to the first, second, and 
third class in England. No two things can 
be more different. There is an oration of De- 
mosthenes still extant, 7npl *2vfifiopiiov 9 which B. 
would translate, " respecting classes ;" but if an 
English reader were to suppose that it is an ora- 
tion upon classes in our sense of the words, he 
would find himself wonderfully mistaken when 
he came to peruse it. We submit, too, but not 
with certainty, that Lord B. has not rightly 
translated the last clause : it should be, " How 
much do you think they would have given me, 
first of all, not to have proposed that law ; and 
next, if I would not assent to that, to let it 



59 



drop by deferring it under the oath, u7rw/uo<7ta," 
i.e. "that I had satisfactory reasons for not 
proceeding with it then, but that I would cer- 
tainly take it up on another day." Such is the 
meaning which Harpocration gives to the word 
viriDiAOGia. Lord B. in his translation appears to 
be ignorant of the distinction between Quvat 

vojulov and QkaQai vofxov. 

P. 70. r\v yap avroiq sk pkv twv Trporepwv vo/uwv 
GvveiacaiSsKa XziTovpysiv. B. " For by the old 
laws they could combine sixteen together to 
bear one assessment, so as to pay little or nothing 
individually." This is what Dr. Bentley would 
ridicule, if he were alive, as "a rap at a ven- 
ture" at the meaning of Aarovpyeiv, from the 
context. A Xurovpyia in its results was often, 
but not always, a pecuniary demand on him 
who had to perform it ; but never can be trans- 
lated as an assessment, for which the Greek 
word is not /caraAoyoc, [the roll or register,] as 
Lord B. afterwards contends, but n/ifyia. We 
have neither room, nor inclination, to explain 
the words Xurovpyol and Xurovpyla ; for are not 
the explanations of them written in Potter, Mit- 
ford, Mitchell, Wachsmuth, and especially in the 
learned Boeckh's Public Economy of Athens, 
works of which B. may have heard the names, 
although he has evidently not benefited by their 
learned compilations ? 

c6 



60 



P. 71. Al7jUO(T0£VIJC UGTIVtyKS VOfXOV UQ TO Tf)l- 

ripapyj,tcov avrt tov 7rpoTSpov, Ka6 ov at gvvteXhui 
r\<5av tuv roivpapywv. B. " Demosthenes brought 
forward a law upon the duty of Trierarchs, in- 
stead of the former law, whereby the naval con- 
stitutions were regulated." It should be, " A. 
brought forward a law upon the Trierarchy, [we 
should say, 6 the Admiralty, 5 ] instead of the for- 
mer law, by which the contributions of the Trier- 
archs were regulated." 

Ibid. km i'erov ry yopriyia yp(i)]mkvovg. B. 

" Let them bear the expense of this office 
equally." How yopriyia can mean the expense 
of the Trierarchy, Lord B. : can alone explain. 
We conjecture, that the proper version is, " re- 
quiring the same qualifications as are required 
for the office of Choregus." But the passage is 
obscure, and it is very probable that though 
Lord B. is wrong, we may not be a whit more 
right. 

P. 73. " All these things used to happen 
under the old law, owing to the poor being made 
to bear the burden," B. : but A. says, to S' amov 
kv TOig mvrjcjiv riv 9 to XeiTovpyuv /lit) SvvaaOai. 
Literally, " And the cause was in the poor, 
owing to their inability to perform this XeiTovp- 
yia" Why does B. leave A. here in the lurch ? 
or, rather, why did he not leave him in the 
lurch from the beginning ? How the Trier- 



61 



archy was converted into an engine of oppres- 
sion against the poor is clear from Cleon's threat 
in The Knights of Aristophanes, that he will 
make the sausage-seller a Trierarch, for the pur- 
pose of compelling him to spend his little all. 
Cf. Knights, v. 880, and Mitchell's learned note 
thereon. 

P. 74. Ka'lTQl TCL [AiyiGTCl JB TWV 7rt7ro\lT£V[A£VlOV 

/ecu TTtTTpayfikviov EjuLavTto TrapaXdiru}. " The greater 

part of my policy and my conduct I pass over." 
B. No : " The most important measures in my 
policy," &c. 

Ibid. Tiov filv ovv Xoywv, ovq ovroq av(*) Kai 
kcltid Siclkvkujv eXeye 7repi tiov 7rapay£-ypajUjU£Vwv 

vofiwv, k. t. X. B. "As to those arguments, which 
in utter confusion he has flung out, about his 
comparative exhibition of the laws." In the note 
B. says that the phrase irapayey. . . . vofi. refers 
to the laws, of which iEschines had theatrically 
exhibited a copy, to show how they had been 
violated. Even this is not correct ; for iEschi- 
nes, in his oration, sect. ££', merely points to 
the o-avtSiov, on which, according to the usual 
practice, were suspended, side by side, a copy of 
the decree, and also a copy of the law which it 
violated. Translate : " With respect to his ar- 
guments upon the laws violated by this decree, 
of which copies are now suspended side by side 
before you, mixed up and down as those argu- 



62 



ments are in utter confusion, I opine that you 
understand them not." 

P. 75. rf/c yapiTOQ jxlv airoGTzpuv. B. " to 
strip of all the graces of generosity." This is 
what B. himself calls " a loan of wit" to A. It 
means, " to deprive of public favour," neither 
more nor less. 

P. 76. Kayw GTsptiu) /eat (7iw7rrj<70juai. u I shall 

be satisfied and silent ;" which is something 
more than " I shall sit down and be silent." 

Ibid, em no deupiich) iov. B. " when super- 
intendent of theatres." No : " when treasurer 
of the theoric funds." We need not inform 
any scholar, — B. is evidently none, — what this 
theoric fund was, how raised, or how misapplied. 
A. twice endeavoured to restore it to its original 
purpose, but in vain. All this, however, is un- 
known to our classical " phenomenon from the 
North." 

Ibid. B. " I made a free gift of the sums ex- 
pended, and did not charge them as expendi- 
ture. For expenditure implies accounts and 
auditors." This is true to the sense ; but why 
not to the words of A., which are very plain ? 
" I made a free gift of the sums expended, and 
did not charge them in my balance-sheet. For 
a balance-sheet [o Xoyt^oc] requires accounts 
and auditors," &c. 

P. 77. B. " Were not suffered to give his 



63 



own money towards the expenses of his ow r n 
department :" wrongly. " Were not suffered to 
contribute his own funds to the state, because he 
is a magistrate," 8«z tj\v apyrjv, " on account of 
his office." A. says nothing about " his own 
department." 

P. 78. tov em twv ottXwv is here rightly 
translated " general of the infantry," and not, as 
before, " general on duty ;" but tov em tt}q Sioi- 
Kr)(re(jjQ KeyjzipoTovr)jievov is not rightly translated 
" the superintendent of finance." It should be 
translated, " The strategus appointed to super- 
intend the administration of the supplies not being 
able to sail and pay the troops:" not, as B. 
translates, " either to make sail or to pay." This 
officer, having under his care both the commissa- 
riat and the military chest, was bound to do both. 

Ibid. GKvXevQevTwv. B. " despoiled," yes, 
" of their arms." For, as Juvenal observes, it 
sometimes happens that spoliatis arma supersunt 

P. 79. tclvtcl yap cucaia zcfti fxoi rrepi rtov clvtujv 

rote aXXoic %7rou. B. " For I have, in every 
respect, the same rights with them." Rather, 
" For surely the same justice for the same 
services should be meted out to me as is meted 
to others." 

Ibid. B. has again lost the spirit of the next 
sentences, by translating them affirmatively in- 
stead of interrogatively, as Demosthenes spoke 
them with a genius truly dramatic : " Did I 



64 



give money to the state ? I was thanked for it, 
&c. Was I in office ? I rendered an account, 
&c. Did I act wrongfully in office? why, as 
you were present, did you not prefer your 
charge, when the logistse called me before 
them ?" B. translates Xoytcrral " the auditors ;" 
but every classical reader is aware that the lo- 
gistse were something more. They had the ex- 
amination and keeping not only of the pecuniary 
accounts, but also of the detailed reports which 
the magistrates gave in of every thing they had 
done in the execution of their respective offices. 

P. 82. oaovg <iT£<f>avov(Ti Ttveg rwv S^fiwv, k. r. A. 

B. " What persons soever shall be crowned in 
any of the provinces." Fiddle-dee ! " Whom- 
soever any of the demes [of Athens] crown." 
The Srjjuoi answer more to our parochial divisions, 
and to our wards in large corporate towns, than 
to the provinces of France, or the shires of our 
own country. 

P. 83. tl gclvtov ovk zWtfiopiteig km rovroiq^ 
B. fancies that he has caught Francis tripping 
here ; and in consequence beats his wings and 
spreads himself out, and crows as loud as Chan- 
ticleer. " Francis," says he, " makes A. stop to 
tell the Athenians that hellebore Was used to 
purge away ' the madness of the brain.' " Well, 
what does B. himself do? "Why don't you 
purge your brain with hellebore for your ma- 
lady?" Is not he therein guilty of the very 



65 



same amplification which he attributes to his 
rival ? If we are to give neither more nor less 
than the original, what objection is there to 
translating " why do you not dose yourself with 
hellebore for this V From this sample, the reader 
may form some judgment of the whole sack of 
B.'s hypercriticisms. 

Ibid. avSpiavra 8/cSeSwkwc Kara <rvyypa<f>riv. Lite- 
rally, " having ordered a statue according to a 
given description." B. translates " ordered a 
statue according to a given model," with which 
there is no reason to quarrel. But he is nothing, 
if not critical ; and so he adds in a note, " The 
original is certainly not ' model,' but ' bond or 
agreement ;' but the sense seems to indicate that 
the agreement contained a model or plan !" 
Noble commentator : how great art thou in the 
discovery of mares' nests ! 

P. 84. 7rpay(jia<Ji kcll iroXiTevfiaai. B. " deeds 

and measures ;" A. says, " by their deeds and 
management of affairs of state." 

Ibid. fioaq, prjTCL Kai apprjTa ovojxaZ ) wv 9 loairsp c£ 
ajua£*7c, a goi Kai tw ffw yivu irpoazGTiv, ovk £/ioi. B. 

"You bawl out, like a strolling player, things 
whether fit to be spoken or not, and suited to 
you and your race, not to me." Calling atten- 
tion, en passant, to the clumsy grammatical con- 
struction of this translation, we must regret that 
the illustration which Dr. Bentley gave to the 



66 



phrase, wgtt^ g£ ci^a^c, in his immortal disserta- 
tion on the Letters of Phalaris, has been thrown 
away on Lord B. The doctor expressly de- 
clares that "This passage is not meanedqfthe cart 
of tragedians. They were other carts, and not 
those of Thespis, that this proverb was taken 
from. They [meaning the early Athenians] 
generally used carts in their pomps and proces- 
sions : not only in the festivals of Bacchus, but 
of other gods too, and particularly in the Eleu- 
sinian feast, the women were carried in the pro- 
cession in carts, out of which thev abused and 
jeered one another. Aristophanes in Plutus, 

MvarrriplotQ Se rolg fxeyciXoiQ 6ypvixkvr\v 
'Eire riJQ ajiid^rjQ. 

Upon which passage the old Scholiast and Suidas 
have this note, ■ That in those carts the women 
(eXotSopouv aXArjAcuc) made abusive jests one upon 
another, and especially at a bridge over the 
river Cephissus, where the procession used to 
stop a little; from whence to abuse and jeer 
was called yrfvpileiv . . .' But besides the Eleu- 
sinian there was the same custom in many other 
festival pomps, whence it was that Tronnrevuv and 
iroinrda came at last to signify scoffing and rail- 
ing. So Demosthenes takes the word." We 
might transcribe more of Dr. Bentley's com- 
mentary on this phrase: but we think this is 
sufficient to show r that B.'s interpolation of " like 



67 



a strolling player," is unwarrantable and absurd. 
He is, however, only discharging a debt, which 
he owes to A. We have already shown that he 
cut out an allusion to iEschines's original pro- 
fession in the opening of A.'s speech, and he 
now supplies his former deficiency by inserting 
an allusion to it, where it has no existence. The 
allusion is rather to " a scolding woman." Why 
not have adopted Bentley's translation ? " Like 
an impudent railer out of a cart, you bawl and 
bellow out names, some fair, and some foul, 
which belong to you and your family, not to me." 

P. 84, 85. O'lKoSofxrjaai Se rove irpoyovovg v)fxiov 
ravTL tcl Si/caoTrjoia viruk-q^a^ ov^ i'va crvWe^avrsg 
vfxag ug ravra airo tojv iS/wv kclkwq [so B. reads I 

but we prefer the old reading, a7ro twv iSi wv fea/ewv, 
which is in keeping with, and has reference to, 
the Kara ttjv civtojv <j>v(Tiv in the preceding sen- 
tence] ra cnroppriTa XiytofULSV a\\r}\ovg' aXX iva 
e^eXeyyjjo/uLBVy ear Tig rjSi/crjfcwc r* 7V JX^ V V T ^ v ^Xtv. 
Tavra toivvv uSwg h!iaylvr\g ov$lv tjttov ep,ov, ttoja- 
ttzvuv avTi tov KaTr\yopuv uXeto. 

B. translates, " I have always conceived our 
ancestors to have erected these halls of justice, 
not that you should assemble in them, leaving 
your private concerns, to hear whatever abo- 
minable things we could utter in abuse of each 
other, but that we might inquire of any offences 
committed against the state. iEschines, aware 



68 



of this, full as well as I am, has rather chosen to 
make such an exhibition than to prosecute an im- 
peachment." 

We have already quoted Dr. Bentley's expla- 
nation of the phrase 7ro/u7rt vuv. His lordship, in 
utter ignorance of that well-known comment of 
Bentley, finds fault with translators for transla- 
ting the word by " pouring out invectives," and, 
turning up his nose, most superciliously, at the 
labours of his predecessors, as he generally does 
when he is most in the wrong, says, " it seems 
to be only exhibiting a theatrical display, — the 
original meaning!! and applies to the apa^t). 
We submit the following translation as much 
nearer to the original, which we will not endea- 
vour to improve, as Lord B. does, by mutilating 
it. " I believe that our ancestors built these 
courts of justice, not that we should convene 
you within them, and then, from our own stores 
of malice, impute to one another things unfit to 
be mentioned, but that we should put upon their 
trial, and pursue to conviction, those who may 
happen to have committed any crimes against 
the state. Of all this iEschines, not being a whit 
less cognizant than I am, has rather chosen to 
deal in ribaldry and invective, than in distinct 
and positive accusation." 

P. 85. etra ov fxlv fiv Trap kfiov ^lktjv Kara tovq 
vofiovg virlp tovtwv XajSav, eiVfp ^Sc/covv,, eZtknreq, kv 



69 



rate evOvvaig, kv raig ypa<f>aic;, ev tcliq aWaiq Kpicreaiv. 

B. translates, " Then when by law you could 
have brought me to justice for the good of the 
people, had I offended, you never proceeded 
against me, neither as a public accountant nor as 
a public accuser, or on any other head of charge." 
Wrong again. Translate, " Then from the place 
[the \oyiGTUOv, the £Kic\r)(j'ia and the SiKaor^piaJ 
in which you were armed with power by the laws 
to obtain justice from me on behalf of the people 
[pointing at the by-standers tovtwv] in case I had 
been guilty of any delinquency, you shrunk alto- 
gether away, on the scrutiny of accounts, on the 
public indictments, on every other species of 
trial 1 . 55 

P. 86*. f Opa, juri tovtojv /mlv eyOpog yg^ l/mog §e 

7rpo(T7roip. 55 B. " See, if you are not in reality the 
country's enemy, while you pretend to be only 
mine. 55 Wrong again. " Look close to it, i. e., 
take care lest you prove the enemy of your 
countrymen, whilst you are assuming to be only 
mine. 55 



1 We adhere to this translation notwithstanding the ob- 
jection of a learned correspondent, who tells us that we are 
wrong. " 05 is where, and the explanation of it is not 
XoyiffTEiov, &c, understood, but kv raig evdvvaig, kv raig 
ypcKfxug, kv raig a\\a7g Kpicremv expressed. 'JLZeXnreg is here 
used absolutely ' you failed — you were wanting.' 'EK\t7reiv 
rivog T07rov is not Greek.* ' 



70 



P. 87. pa$i(*)Q ovtcjq «/>X 6t T °v KaKtoq \kyuv. B. 

" who is so prone to evil speaking." In this trans- 
lation the force of apyzi, which contains justifica- 
tion of A., is entirely lost. A. has already stated 
that he is not fond of dealing in abuse ; but that, 
in consequence of the abuse poured upon him, he 
must show who he is, and from whom descended, 
that is, " thus readily or eagerly setting the ex- 
ample of abusive language." 

P. 88. TrepiTpi/uL/JLa ayopag. B. " hack of the 

courts." No such thing. " Hack of the agora," 
the favourite resort of all the idle and abandoned 
persons in Athens. Cf. Arist. Equit. 178, ylyvu 

fxhyaq Orirj 7rov7jpoc Ka£ ayopag ei kcli Opacrvg. But 

this blunder springs from the ordinary confusion 
of translating the Greek ayopa by the Latin 
forum, and by then again considering the forum 
as a synonyme for the courts of justice. 

Ibid. B. omits all translation of the clause ovS* 

av ovTa)Q kiraydziq \6yovq iropiaaaQai, " nor would 

have used such wearisome language," i. e., " nor 
would have wearied us with such language as he 
has used, ranting, as in tragedy, about," &c. 

Ibid. 2oi Se aptTriG, ci /caflapjua, r\ toiq goiq, tiq 

juzTovcria ; B. " Why, what had ever you or yours, 
you abomination, to do with virtue V 9 In the note 
B. says, that Francis translates this word KaOappa, 
" impurity;" Dawson, " impudent wretch," which, 
he adds, is wide of the mark : Leland, " thou 



71 



miscreant." Now, it is quite clear that B. him- 
self has no notion of the real meaning of the 
word. We refer for explanation of it to Mitchell's 
edition of The Knights of Aristophanes, v. 708, 
and v. 1099. He will then see that KaOapima was an 
expiatory victim, offered up to atone for the guilt, 
and avert the punishment, of the parties sacri- 
ficing. Two such victims, both men, according to 
some writers, but a male and female, according 
' to others, were provided annually by the Athe- 
nian state for this purpose. A feeling of the ut- 
most contempt and horror was attached to these 
KaOappaTa. But of all this Lord B. seems per- 
fectly unconscious. We cannot translate, we 
can only approximate to the meaning of, KaOap/ua. 
It is a sort of frozen word, which, as Mr. Mitchell 
remarks on another occasion, requires the warm 
breath of commentatorship to come over it, be- 
fore it can be thawed into life and animation. 

P. 89. yoiviKaq iraynaq £pv Kal %v\ov. B. 

" loaded with fetters and billets." Out again : 
" wearing a wooden collar on his neck, and 
heavy fetters on his calves." The -^oivi^ was a 
fetter for the legs, as we learn from Aristoph. 
Plutus, 275, 

at KvrjjjLai Si crov fio&aiv 
'lov iov, rag ^olviKag /ecu tciq 7ridag Tzodovaai. 

where the learned Thiersch states that the 
yolvi'i was sometimes called £,v\ott&y). In the 

6 



72 



Ranae of Aristoph. v. 681, iivtv £v\ov f}a$ll<ov is 
generally translated, "walking without a cudgel:" 
but I am inclined to think, that it ought to be 
translated, " walking without his wooden collar." 
£uXov for " billets" is quite out of the question 
here. 

Ibid, tolq jU£0f?jtf£pivoic yafxoiq kv rw kXktiio wpog 

tw KaXa/xir^ rjpwi y^pwfikv^ " who celebrated daily 
marriages in her lodging-house at the temple of 
Calamites." So B. veils what he considers, I 
suppose, the coarseness of Demosth. Ta^oi is 
here used for ydjxoq, as it frequently is used by 
Sophocles and Aristophanes. The charge against 
the mother of iEschines is, that she " prostituted 
herself in the day-time in the brothel near the 
statue of the hero Calamites." But the whole 
point of the sentence is lost by this introduction 
of u who did so-and-so." The translation is, 
•' she reared you up, iEschines, to be a consum- 
mate third-rate actor, by prostituting herself in 
the day-time," &c. B. is completely ignorant 
of this use of the participle l . 

Ibid, air avTiov Se, tov auroc fiefiitoicsv, a^Ofxai. 

" I will begin with what he has himself done," 

1 In the review of this work as printed originally in 
the Times, we fell into B.'s blunder of confusing fxedrjfie- 
pivbc with KadrjfjiepiyoQ. Our learned correspondent called 
our attention to this confusion of the two words, and we 
take this opportunity of thanking him for the correction. 



73 



B. Very weak in comparison of the original. 

A. has been describing the life which the father 
and mother of iEschines, the one a runaway 
slave, the other a common prostitute, had lived. 
He says, " I have now done with that, and will 
begin with a description of the circumstances in 
which he (iEsch.) himself has passed his whole 
life." 

P. 90. TTJV $£ jULTfTepa G£fXVh)Q 7TCLVV TXcLVKoOsdV 

wvo/JLaaev, rjv . E/u7rovcrav awavTeq icraai Ka\ovfizvr)v. 

B. " Duly honouring his mother, he called her 
Glaucothea, whom we all knew by the name of 
Empusa." Out again. A. says nothing about 
iE.'s " duly honouring his mother." What he 
says is this : " To his mother he gave the very 
dignified name of Glaucothea, whom the people 
knew by the nickname of Empusa;" i. e. a spectre 
sent by Hecate to frighten travellers. There is 
an amusing description of Empusa in the Frogs 
of Aristoph. v. 284, to which I have no doubt 
that A. alluded. 

Ibid. ov"£ birtjg X^P IV a ^ roi c e X H ^> "AXa Kai jHiff- 
OoKrac GavTOV Kara tovtmvi 7ro\iTZvrj. Lord B. 

being quite ignorant of this use of ov^ ottwq for 
non modo non 9 although it has been illustrated 
by Viger, Duker, and others, translates thus : 
" You show your gratitude for these benefits by 
hiring yourself out to pursue the course most 
ruinous to their interests." Whereas he should 

D 



74 



have translated it thus : " You not only feel no 
gratitude towards your countrymen, but have 
absolutely hired yourself out to manage the state 
to their ruin." 

P. 91. icai u fULri i) fiovXri rj s£ Apuov 7rayou, 

fc. r. A. B. translates : " And had not the 
Areopagitic council, hearing what he was about, 
and seeing you thrown off your guard at a critical 
moment, traced out the man and brought him 
back in custody before you, the criminal would 
have escaped the punishment he justly deserved, 
and would have escaped through this specious de- 
cl aimer." Literally, and far more forcibly, thus : 
" And if the senate of Areopagus, on hearing of 
the transaction (to it pay pa alaOofjiEvv), and on 
seeing your utter ignorance in so dangerous a 
crisis, had not traced out the man, and taken him: 
into custody, and brought him again to trial 
before you, such a scoundrel as he was would 
have been stolen from justice {k^oTtaar av), and 
escaping from punishment, would have been 
sent out of the country by this fine-spoken 
gentleman." The declaimer is an invention of 
Lord B.'s. 

Ibid, (oq TTpoeiXeaOe KaKUvr)v Kal Kvplav rov 7rpay- 

juaTOQ sTroiYiaare. Reiske translates this passage 
very properly : " as you had previously elected 
this body (the senate of Areopagus), and made 
it supreme over the matter." There is not the 



75 



slightest authority for B.'s version : " when you 
appealed to them, and made them umpires of 
the controversy." 

P. 93. 7w IIi/0om QpaGwofikvi*) Kai 7roW(o peovri 

Kaff vfiuv. This is the fervet immensusque riiit 
pro/undo ore of Horace, thus lamentably ren- 
dered by B. : " Python's insolence or his invectives 
against you." What has become of the " mighty 
stream" of invective contained in the original ? 

P. 94. TroWa av £yw vvv en tovtwv Suvotzqci 

eyoi/mi Sa£cu, /c. r. A. B. thus : " I am in pos- 
session of many proofs that he was in those 
times employed in serving the enemy and in 
calumniating me." A. says nothing of the kind. 
" I might point out to you many transactions 
still more heinous than these, in which he was 
detected serving the enemy whilst indulging his 
rancorous disposition against me." 

P. 95. o (3a<JKavog ovrocri lajmfieiocpayog. Lite- 
rally : " This malignant mouther of Iambics ;" 
alluding again to iEschines's original profession 
as an actor. B. renders it, " this slanderer, this 
sneermonger," which is a much worse translation 
than either Leland's " theatrical ranter," or Daw- 
son's " satirical scribbler," supposing LapfioypcKpoQ 
to be the reading. B. proposes laixfiotyopoq as a 
better reading ; on what authority, and why ? 

P. 96. ovceiror eicvixpy av ra/ca Trtirpayfiiva gcivtio. 

B. " Never will you be able to expiate that 

d 2 



76 



passage of your life." This, contrary to his 
lordship's wont, is somewhat stronger than A. 
The meaning of A. is something like that of 
Shakspeare in Macbeth : 

"Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood 
Clean from my hand ? " 

Translate, " Never will you be able to wash 
clean from yourself the deeds you perpetrated 
there." Had there been any idea of expiation, 
we should have had KaQap/uitp, or some such word, 
introduced, as in the (Ed. Tyr. 1250. 

P. 98. oi julsv £K 7rapaic\ri<ye(*)Q GvyKaQrifisvoi ovk 

elwv jue At-yav. B. " Some who attended the 
meeting would not suffer me to speak." There 
is an ambiguity in this passage, which B., not 
seeing, slurs over without notice. There is a 
great deal more meant than "some who attended 
the meeting." oi £k TrapaicXrictwg may mean, 
" those who attended the €K/cXi?<na on the sum- 
mons of jEschines," and therefore as his friends ; 
or it may mean those who attended on the part 
of the 7rapaK\rjmg 9 or defence, in opposition to 
the Trp6<jic\r)<jig, or summons, served on iEschines 
as defendant. We are inclined to the latter 
meaning. The word (jvyKaOrjfjievoi is important 
here, and yet lord B. has not translated it. It 
shows that they were not casual bystanders, but 
individuals who had come in a body, at an early 
hour, to the kiacXrivia [cf. Acharn. ad initium, 



77 



wpwTKTTog etc kKK\r\Giav NoffTwv KaQr\)xai^\ 

and that they came irapzaKtvaGiikvoi 

fio(j.V 9 VTTOKpOVEW, XoiSopElV TOP pfjTOpa, 

P. 99. ev irpa-yjia avvrSlv o^zaQs, " you will 
perceive the nicety of the contrivance." Non- 
sense. " You will perceive that the matter was 
well arranged." 

Ibid. cnraWayri is not " successful issue," but 
" relief" from war. 

P. 100. paov 7]\ttiC^ ra fiev TTapaKpoyGzaQai, 

to. Se tteiguv. B. " He hoped easily to gain some 
of his ends by fraud, and others by persuasion." 
Not correct. " He expected that he should 
have greater ease in bringing some matters into 
dispute, and in carrying others by negociation." 

P. 102. wg Se to T^g 7roX£o>c a^'njjjULa XajSwv 
a<j)LK2TO eirepaivev £(j> oig siaigOujOy]. B. " But as 

soon as he was armed with the authority of the 
state, he proceeded to the Amphictyonic council, 
and throwing aside and neglecting all other 
business, despatched that for which he had been 
hired." Not so. This gives an incorrect view 
of the proceedings of iEschines. Tu construas : 
" As soon as he arrived at the Amphictyonic 
council, invested with the rank and power of 
this country, he threw aside and neglected all 
other business, and employed himself in accom- 
plishing that for which he had been hired." 

d3 



78 



Ibid* oOev i) Kippaia \upci KaOiepwOrj. B. " For 

which the Cirrhsean territory was originally 
consecrated? No : rather, " execrated," or " de- 
secrated." Perhaps " accursed" will be nearer 
the meaning of the original. " Devoted" would 
imply that it belonged to the infernal gods. 

P. 103. yvojataOe §' eiceiQev' ovk evr)v, k. r. A. 
" Thus you will perceive from hence that it was 
not competent," &c. This must be a typo- 
graphical error. A. says, "You will know it 
from this — It was not competent," &c. 

P. 104. tt)v EXarctav fcaraXctjuj3ava. B. "fell 

upon Elataea." He did more — he seized upon it. 

P. 105. eira jULEvroiy Kai ogov KaO eva avSpa, Kai 

St tfiL B. " But as far as under Providence it 
might depend on one man, it was done through 
me." What does B. mean by thus interpolating 
" as far as under Providence," and by stating in 
his note that eira has clearly this sense ? How 
deriving it ? How deserving it ? 

P. 108. ETTElSr) AoKOOl 7rX?//U/UfcXoV(TtV H£ TO IsQOV 

tov 'AttoAAwvoc. B. thus, " Whereas the Locrians 
have profaned the temple of Apollo." Not so ; but, 
" Whereas the Locrians are transgressing against, 
i. e. ? are violating, the rights of the Temple of 
Apollo." 

P. 109. u firjShv tvXafirjOtVTa Ta\r}9lg mruv Scoi. 

Why is pjSav tvXafiriOavTa left untranslated ? It is 
very important to the sense. 



79 



P. 110. (7V/u|3£j3rj/CE joivvv fioi tH)V Kara tiiq 7ra- 
rp'iSog tovtoj ttsw pay jULevwv a\pa/j.ev(i) 9 ug a rovroig 
kvavTiovjizvoQ avrog 7r£7roAir£u/xai, atyiyQai. B. " It 
has come to pass that in touching upon the 
things which he did against the interests of the 
country, I have arrived at the part of my own 
conduct which he opposed." Rather, " I have 
arrived at the public measures, which, in opposi- 
tion to his projects, I carried into execution." 

P. 111. ko\<xk£V(i)v 7rapt]Ko\ov9eig. B. " perse- 
cuted with your flattery." It means nothing 
more than, " whom you followed closely as a 
flatterer." 

P. 112. [XYIVOQ EAa0Tjj3oAlc5l>Oe \kT^ (j)6lVOVTOg. 

B. " the 25th." No : " the 26th," of Elaphebolion. 

P. 116. Trporepov juev ovv vfiwv KdTeyiyvuxjKov 
em Tio fueWeiv 7ra0£(70cu raig eKeivwv eXttlgi kcu 
kiraKoXovQuv avrCov tyj Trpoaipeaei. B. thus : " At 

first / accused you of being led away by the pro- 
spects which they held out for the future to fol- 
low their party." No. " At first I blamed you, 
under the notion that you were going to comply 
with their expectations, and to follow their 
policy'' 

Ibid. Ovtio SiaOsiq o <f>'i\nnrog rag 7ro\ug npoq 

aWiiXag. B. " having thus set the different states 
at variance with each other." Why not more 
literally, " having created this state of feeling 
towards each other in the different cities ?" It 

D 4 



80 



is only by inference that B. arrives at his 



variance." 



P. 117. i7#C£ S* ayygAXwv Tig ug Tovg IIpvTavtig wg 
'E. k.,k. t. A. B. " A messenger came to acquaint 
the Prytanees that Elatea was taken." Nothing 
is said in the original about a messenger. "And 
there came to the Prytanees an individual, who 
informed them that Elatea was taken." That 
individual is afterwards called not tov ayyeXov, 

but TOV r)KOVTCL. 

Ibid, Kai julstcl TavTCiy ot jxlv , svQvg e^avacTTavTeg 

fuitTa^v SenrvovvTtg 01 Sc rove (JTpaTrjyovg fi£T- 

£7T£/i7rovro Kai tov aaXTriyKTrjv zKakovv, Kai Oopvfiov 

Tr\l)pr)g y\v v 7r6\ig. B. thus : " Whereupon some 
of them (the Prytanees) instantly starting from 
the table at which they were sitting, cleared the 
booths in the forum, and set fire to their wicker 
coverings ; others summoned the generals of the 
state, and ordered the alarum to be sounded. The 
city was filled with consternation." All this is 
wrong. No alarum, in our sense of the word, 
was sounded, nor was there any reason ; for Ela- 
tea was about forty-three English miles from 
Thebes, and seventy-eight from Athens. (Clin- 
ton's Fasti Hellenici, p. 294.) The booths in the 
market-place (why Latinize the Greek word?) 
were burnt, that the space might be cleared to 
give free access to the ewtraordinary assembly in 
the Pnyx, which the Prytanees anticipated that 



81 



the Strategi would fix, by sound of * trumpet, for the 
next morning. The passage ought to be translated 
thus : " And thereupon some of them instantly 
starting up from their unfinished meal, [N. B. 
The Prytanees had a common hall, in which 
they assembled and dined,] drove the occu- 
piers from the booths in the Agora, and burnt 
down their wicker frame-works, whilst others 
sent for the Strategi, and summoned the trum- 
peter to attend ; and the city was full of uproar.* 5 
The e/c/cXrjcn'ai crvyicXriTol were called by the 
Strategi, on sudden and important emergencies, 
and, as Mitchell informs us, " could be brought 
together only by the sound of trumpet, and the 
herald's proclamation." Lord B. would do well 
to read Mr. Mitchell's note D, in the Appendix 
to his edition of the Acharnians, on the e/c/eAWat 
(rv-y/cXrjrcn, as it will convince him that the trum- 
peter was not summoned to call the people to 
arms. The very next sentence, which B. has 
wretchedly translated, shows that he was sum- 
moned to call the people to the £/c/cAr/<Tia. What 
is it? "On the morrow, as soon as the clay 
dawned, the Prytanees convened the senate in the 
senate-house, and you repaired to the assembly ; 
and before the senate had proposed any measure 
for its deliberation, and before it had even drawn 
up a probouleuma, the whole people was seated 
in the Pnyx." Or, as Lord B. translates, " When 
d 5 



82 



the next day broke, the Prytanees convoked the 
senate in the senate house : you repaired to your 
own assembly ; and before they could adopt any 
measure, or even enter upon their deliberations, 
the whole people had seated themselves upon the 
hill." B. talks of the difficulty in the word avw. 
If he had recollected how common the phrase 
avafialvav ziq siac\r)(jiav is in Demosthenes, and 
had known any thing about the elevated situ- 
ation of the Pnyx, which was considerably above 
the Agora, through which access was obtained 
to it, he would not have lauded himself and Dr. 
Arnold so lustily for the wondrous discovery 
which they profess to have made. Mr. Mitchell 
pointed it out before either of them, in one of 
his valuable notes to his edition of Aristophanes, 
and, if I may trust a note in the Oxford edition 
of this oration, an English translator, of the 
name of Portal, discovered it before any of them. 
By-the-by, Mr. Mitchell and all the other com- 
mentators have overlooked a similar usage of 

avw in the Ranss, V. 405, vvvl §£ ^jLiayuyet ev rolq 
avh) vsKpoiai Kaori tcl 7rpu)Ta tt)q e/cei /uLoydrjQiag. 

The rote avuj vEKpoim means, there, both "the 
corpses in the world above," and "the corpses on 
the hill, i. e., in the Pnyx." 

P. 119. KaXovvrig Se rp koivtj ipoyvrj rf/c 7rarpiSoc 
rov epovvO' virep G(jjrr]ptaq. B. translates thus 

poetically: "Though the cries of our common 



83 



country were heard, imploring some one to lift 
his voice and save her." This is being true to 
the fame, but not to the sense, of A., who merely 
says, " When our country, with collective voice, 
was calling for the man who had courage to 
propose measures for her preservation." 

Ibid. B^a. Our learned ex-chancellor here 
indulges himself in a flight of antiquarian 
criticism. He tells us, that " rostrum is neither 
Greek nor English, nor is it indeed the Latin 
word either'' What then is it ? " And as we 
happily have no oratorical engine of this kind, 
it can hardly be naturalized as a word w r ith us. 
It seems well to use firipa itself, then * * *. My 
learned friend, Mr. Morritt, informs me, that 
the term Bema is used by antiquaries to denote 
the raised part of the floor in front of the altar ; 
and it is possible" (O ye gods !) " that in Athens 
the bema may have only been such an elevation, 
and not a pulpit, as at Rome formerly, and at 
Paris." Pericles " in a pulpit" is about as ridi- 
culous an idea as Demosthenes " in a dog-cart." 
Did any man who has read a line of Greek, ever 
dream of the bema being a pulpit, except Lord 
B. ? There are plenty of books, which will tell 
him what it was, if he will but take the trouble 
to consult them. Take Schoman's description of 
it, quoted by Mitchell, ad Ach. 20, " Ad meri- 
dionalem Pnycis murum suggestus erat to fiv^a, 

d 6 



84 

decern fere aut undecim pedum altitudine, octo 
graduum ascensu, superficie quadrata, decern 
ferme pedum longitudine et latitudine, ex ipso 
saxo, quod in illam Pnycis partem imminebat, 
excisus, quamobrem ssepissime X/0oc vocari 
solet, 

bang Kparel vvv tov \idov rovv rfj HvvkL' 
P. 120. a\\a Kal \eywv Kal ypatytov, ££rjra£ojur?i> 

TCL CtOVZ V7T£p VfxH)V kv OVTQIQ TOIQ <j>o(3epOig. B. 

" Both by my words and my actions I discharged 
my duty to you in the last emergency." Rather, 
" Both in my speeches, and in my propositions, 
I endeavoured to find out the measures which 
were necessary for your salvation at that time 
of terror and alarm." One might almost trans- 
late, " during the reign of terror 1 ." 

P. 121. 7r\rjalov SvvajLiiv §«'£ac, K, r. A. B. 

clumsily and wrongly, thus : " It is that display- 
ing his forces in our neighbourhood, and march- 
ing up his troops, he may at once elevate and 
inspirit his friends, and strike terror into his ad- 
versaries, and that they, being overawed, may 
be induced, or may be compelled, to make 

1 Our learned correspondent has clearly convicted us of 
error in this translation. He says, " The passage has been 
slurred by B., badly pointed and falsely construed by the 
Reviewer," who has mistaken k^r}Ta^6jxriv for e^rjra^oy. He 
then adds, " Tu construas, k'S,r]Ta'C6jjr)v (I was found) kol 
\iy<*>v /ecu ypa(f)(i)i> to. $e6vt<x inrep i//xa)j'." 



85 



concessions, which they now refuse." Rather, 
" Having displayed his power in the neighbour- 
hood, and having marched up his troops to the 
frontiers [of Thebes, rather than of Athens, as 
the preceding sentences show], he wishes to 
encourage and embolden his own friends, and to 
strike down with dismay (/cara7rX?7^ai) all who 
oppose him, in order that they may either sur- 
render from fear, or give up, on the application 
of violence, all the objects which they now refuse." 
Ibid, ei /uev ovv 7rpoaipi](TOfi£0a, k. t. A. " If 
then, I said, we are in these circumstances re- 
solved to bear in mind whatever wrongs the The- 
bans may have done us aforetime, and to dis- 
trust them, as taking part with our enemies, we 
shall, in the first place, be doing the very thing 
that Philip is praying for ; and next, I fear me, 
lest those who now are his adversaries, may join 
him, and all Philippizing after the same fashion, 
both Thebans and Philip may invade Attica." 
Such is B.'s translation. We submit the fol- 
lowing, as closer to the words and meaning of 
A. " If then, I said, we shall act upon the prin- 
ciple of remembering on the present occasion 
any unpleasant turn \fi $v<tko\ov, " any thing 
untoward," the very mildest term for offence in 
the Greek language,] which the Thebans may have 
done us, and of placing no confidence in them 
on the ground that they are enrolled in the 



86 



party of our enemies, we shall, in the first place, 
do every thing which Philip would pray for us 
to do ; and, in the next, I fear that after those 
who now resist him have welcomed him to their 
friendship {irpoa^tiafxkvwv), and have all unani- 
mously (/una yviofiYj) Philippized, their combined 
forces should march into Attica." 

P. 1 22. £7T£ira i^eXOovrag EXevalva^BTovg kv SiXiKia 
Kal rovg linrEag, oaqai ttckjiv v/mag avrovg kv toiq 
O7r\oig bvTag, \va toiq ev Qr)(jatg <j)povovcri to. vfikreoa 
f£ i'crov yivriTai to Trapprjaia^dOaL 7repl tojv Sikcuwv, 
etSotxtv on wawep toiq wooXovgi <$>i\nr7rio ttjv TraTpiSa, 

k. t. A. B. thus translates, " [I recommend] 
that the young men and cavalry, marching upon 
Eleusis, should prove to all Greece that you are 
in arms, and that your partisans at Thebes may 
have an equal power to maintain their cause, 
when they find you are as ready and as willing 
to succour the asserters of liberty, if attacked, 
as Philip was to aid, with his forces in Elatea, 
those who were selling their country to him." 
Closer to the original thus : " [I recommend] 
next, that the citizens of military age, along 
with the knights, marching out of the city to 
[not upon] Eleusis, should show to all that you 
are yourselves up in arms, in order that your 
partizans in Thebes may enjoy equally [with 
your adversaries] the power of speaking with 
freedom on the subject of their rights [to nappy- 



87 



aialecjOai 7repl rtov St/catwv], from knowing, that as 
those who are selling their country to Philip 9 
have a force at Elatea ready to march to their 
support, so those who are desirous of contending 
for liberty, have in you ready allies, who will 
support, if any party should attack them." 

P. 123. KVpLOVQ KCLI TOV 7TOT£ §£l £/C£lCT£ j3a§l£aV 

kcu tt)q £^o8ou. B. " have authority to deter- 
mine the time both of their arrival, and of 
their setting out." This is sad mistaken stuff ! 
Translate, " should have authority to determine 
both when the ambassadors should proceed thither 
[i. e. to Philip,'] and when the expedition should 
leave Attica" 

Ibid. £7rayye\Xe<j9e por)61i<jeiv, kav KtXevtocjiv, wg 
EKsivujv jjlIv ovt(i)v kv roig eayarotg KivSvvoig . . . tv 
kav fj.ev Se£wvrcu ravra, kcli TruaQtoaiv fijuav, kol a fiov- 
Xo/i£0a wjmev §u*)Kr)iikvoi y /ecu fJLira ir^oayjifxaTog a^lov 

rr)g TroXeojg tclvto, irpa^ajfAtv. B. thus : " Promise 
whatever succour they demand, they being in 
the most extreme danger, and we better able 
than they to foresee the result, so that if they 
agree with us, and take our advice, we shall both 
carry our point, and act upon a plan worthy of 
the state" It is quite evident that B. has in this 
passage quite mistaken the meaning of A. De- 
mosthenes is now telling his judges what lan- 
guage he recommended the ambassadors to 
employ to the Thebans. He says : " Promise 



88 



the Thebans that you will support them, if they 
urge it, on the ground, that they indeed are in 
the very jaws of danger, and that we see the 
future more clearly than they can; so that if 
they should accept our proposals, and should 
follow our advice, we may at once accomplish 
our own objects, and do so upon a pretext 
worthy of the state." irpoayyixa signifies a pretext 
in the Ranee, V. 878, Trooayrifia ti)q rpaytoSiac." 
Mitchell there quotes Joseph. Antiq. xiv. 12, 
wpoGyjijuia Trig |3acnAaac tov Yqkcivov. 

P. 127. ov$lv Trpoa^iKTiOetg vwo tov StJjuov tov * AO. 

B. " albeit he had from the people of Athens re- 
ceived no kind of injury." Better thus " without 
any provocation of prior injury? from Mitford. 

P. 1 30. (TvvOeaOai Se ?rpo<; avTovg kcu avfifxaylav^ 
kcu £7riyeuuav 7roiriaa<j9m /ecu baicovg Sovvai /ecu 

Aaj3av. B., who has translated this decree with 
singular accuracy (0 si sic omnia !) has made a 
slight blunder at the close of it. " The people 
of Athens will treat with them for concluding 
an alliance, offensive and defensive, mutual natu- 
ralization, and an interchange of ratifications 
upon oath." We deem " mutual naturalization" 
to be an expression much stronger than kmyafiia. 
Mitford's translation of this part of the decree 
appears to be more correct (Hist, of Greece, 
vol. viii. p. 341) : " will form connection with 
them by alliance of the states, by allowance for 



89 



intermarriage among individuals, and by the full 
admission of reciprocity of oaths for all pur- 
poses." 

P. 132. O yap vvjuifiovXoQ kcli o <TVKo<j>avTr}c;. B. 

" For a statesman and a partisan." His lord- 
ship defends this translation, which appears to 
us very indefensible, in this very curious way: 
" statesman is used in the text with * partisan 5 
opposed ; the former is eulogistic, and the latter 
dyslogistic." We conceive that an antithesis 
more analogous to that of Demosthenes would 
be, " for an honest patriot, and a thorough-going 
party-man," &c. 

P. 133. TOGaVTK]V V7TSppo\r}V TTOIOV/Uai, d)GTS OfJLO- 

Xoyw, means nothing more than " I will go so 
far as to confess." B. has no authority for 
translating it, " I will go to such an excess of 
candour as to confess ;" but too often he acts 
the part of Mrs. Candour. 

Ibid, u yap eaO o rt tlq vvv £wpa/C£v, b <rvv~ 
f)veyKEv av tots irpayQsv^ tovt syw (j>r]/JLi §eiv sjuls jit?] 

aUUV SI C£ jUTJT £OT(, jX7\TS V\V 9 fJL7]T aV SL7TSIV EyOL 

fxr)§£ic /ur]S£7rw Kal TY)jj,spov, k. r. A. B. " For if 

there be any thing which any one can now 
descry that ought then to have been done ! of that 
thing I will admit I ought not to have been 
unaware. But if there be nothing that either 
was feasible ! ! or that any man in any way can 
even at this day state, what behoved it a coun- 



90 



cillor to advise, was he not bound to choose the 
only course (to, Kpariara) which presented itself 
and was within our reach ? That then did I, 
when the herald, iEschines, demanded, ' Who 
desires to speak V not, ' Who wants to blame 
the past V nor yet i Who is willing to guarantee 
the future V " From not translating literally, — 
and certainly the reader of the preceding sen- 
tences will not accuse his lordship of translating 
either elegantly or spiritedly, — B. has run into 
several blunders. We subjoin a more literal 
version : " For if there be any measure which 
an individual can even now descry as likely to 
have benefitted the country, if it had then been 
carried into effect, I will admit that that measure 
ought not to have escaped my notice. But if 
there neither is nor was such a measure, and if 
it is impossible, even up to this day, for any 
man to point out such a measure, what was it 
fitting for the honest patriot to do ? Was it 
not his duty to choose the best of the various 
measures which then presented themselves and 
were within his power ? That was the course, 
then, which I followed, when the herald asked 
iEschines ' Who wishes to address the people V 
not ' Who wishes to find fault with the past, or 
to pledge himself for the security of the future V " 
P. 134. rig irpa^ig, e<j> rjv /uaXXoy eSei /me ayayeiv 

TovTovai ; B. " What measure was there that I 



91 



ought to have preferred pressing upon the peo- 
ple ?" Rather, " What practical measure which 
it was more my duty to induce my countrymen 
to adopt?" 

Ibid. Tore tolvvv to, /uev rJiieXXev, wg eSo/ca, twv 
Seivutv, tcl §' 77877 TTapr)v, ev oig rr\v irpoaipeGLV jjlov 
(jkottu Tr)g TToXiTUaq* fir) tcl avfifiavTa <JvKo<f>avTei. 

B. " At that time some of the calamities w 7 ere 
approaching [what becomes of wg zSoku ?], others 
impended! [7ra^r]v] ? to meet which only examine 
the course of my policy, instead of declaiming 
upon the event." 2u/co^avrEtv, to declaim upon ! 
What next, my noble Theban? There is no 
difficulty in the passage. It may be translated 
thus : " At that time some of our dangers were 
impending, whilst some were already present, 
and upon us ; and with regard to the latter, 
consider well the principle of the policy which I 
adopted, and abstain from inveighing falsely 
against past occurrences." 

P. 135. M77 Sr) tovto wg aSucq/xa kfiov Orjg, u 
KpaTriaai avvkpr) ^iXittttw tij tiavp' tv yap tlo Oeu) 
to tovtov Te\og ?)v, ovk kv e/uloi* aXX tog ov^ cnravTa 
©<ra evr)v /car' avOptoTrtvov \oyi<JLWV hXoiitjv, K. r. X. 

B. thus translates : " Lay not, then, the blame 
on me, if it was Philip's fortune to win the bat- 
tle ; for this depended on Heaven, not on me. 
But if I did not adopt all possible expedients, ac- 
cording to all human calculation, — if I did not 



92 



strictly and strenuously persevere ! ! in them, 
and with exertions above my strength, — or if I 
did not insist ! ! upon those measures, which 
were glorious for the country, and worthy of 
her renown, and necessary for her safety (a£ia 
ical avayicaia), show me that, and then impeach 
me, when you please" (tjStj). Again has Lord 
Brougham gone adrift, and missed the meaning 
of his author, which is luce clarior. The literal 
version is as follows : " Do not reckon it, then, 
as a fault of mine, that it was the fortune of 
Philip to win the battle ; for the issue of it was 
in the hands of God, not in mine. But that I 
did not adopt all the measures which came 
within human calculation, — that I did not carry 
them into execution properly, and sedulously, 
and with a laborious zeal, far beyond my 
strength, — or that I did not institute proceed- 
ings honourable and becoming to the country, 
and required by the emergency, — prove to me, 
if you can, and then, without a moment's delay, 
prefer your accusation against me." 

Ibid, o GVfuifiaQ gk^tttoq r) ^£tpv, i. e. " the 
thunderbolt, or hurricane, which burst upon us." 
But his lordship translates it, " the tempest, the 
hurricane, which visited us." His- note on the 
word gk^tttoq is highly amusing, supposing it to 
be intelligible. " 2fcr?7rroc certainly means a 
thundergust as well as a ivhirlwind ! ! A com- 



93 



mon thunder it does not mean." Does it mean 
then an uncommon thunder ? " Had A. in- 
tended to say thunder, he certainly would not 
have left his meaning ambiguous, nor have first 
put thunder-storm, and then yziiiuv, tempest 
generally: besides, a whirlwind is as sudden 
and much more sweeping than thunder." In 
the name of common-sense, what is the meaning 
of this galimatias f Was it written after the 
Member of the National Institute of France 
had come from a great Dionysiac festival ? 

P. 136. w<T7T£p av el Tig vavicXripov iravT iiri 
Gt*)Tr\pia wpa^avra Kai ttclgi KaTaaKtvaaavTa to 
ttXoiov a<p S)v V7re\afji(iave (7O)0Tj(X£(T0ai, eira yjEifJiwvi 
^prjaafULevov Kai irovr\aavTwv civtu> twv gkbviov tj Kai 
<JvvTQif3£vT(i)v b\a)g, Trig vavaylag ciitkdto. B. 

translates thus : " As if when the owner of the 
vessel has done every thing that her safety re- 
quired, and fitted her out with all that could 
secure her a prosperous voyage ! ! and she en- 
counters a storm, and her works labour, and 
entirely give way, some one should charge him 
with the shipwreck." We shall most briefly ex- 
plain the points in which we consider B. wrong, 
by submitting our own translation : " Just as if a 
ship-owner, who had done every thing in his 
power for the safety of his vessel, and had pro- 
vided her well with every species of stores which he 
deemed likely to conduce to her preservation, after 



94 



she had encountered a storm, and her timbers 
had been strained — or rather, shattered to 
pieces — should be considered in fault for her 
wreck." 

P. 137. aXX' skhvo Xoyi^ov Kai bpa, zi fULZTa 
Qrjfiaiijjv 7]}xiv ayioviCojJLSVoig ovtuq Eijuapro Trpa£,ai, 

k. r. X. B. " But consider this, and mark ; if 
such was our fate [what becomes of A.'s euphe- 
mismus of rrpa^ai ovrug for the heavy calamity 
which befel the Athenians?] when we com- 
bated with the Thebans on our sides, what had 
we to expect, if, instead of having them for 
allies, they had joined Philip, which iEschines 
exhausted all his strength ! ! to make them do ! ! ! 

\jU7TEQ OV TOT £K£lVOQ TTCMJCLQ a(j>r)KE (f)(OVag.j And if 

when the battle was fought three days' march 
from Attica, so great peril and such alarm beset 
the city, what would have been our prospects if 
the disaster had happened close to our own terri- 
tory? [a nov T7)g yjopaq TavTO tovto irdQoq Gvvef3r) ;] 
Should we, think you, have been able to stand, 
to assemble, to breathe ? [Here is omitted the 
important words vvv jutv, which are necessary to 
mark the aTromwir^aiQ after tots Se in the next 
sentence.] As it was, a single day, or two or 
three contributed much to the safety of the city. 

But in the event I am supposing . It is, 

however, useless [owe o£iov] to recount things 
which we have been spared, through the good- 



95 



ness of Heaven and the protection of the very alli- 
ance you are attacking''' [to 7rpofia\izoQai ~r\v ttoXiv 

Tavrr)v rr\v GVfijxaylav^ r\Q gv jcarr/yopaicj. We pur- 
Sue our old course of noticing and correcting B.'s 
blunders in a literal translation of our own : 
" But consider and reflect upon this, if it was 
our fate to fare thus on entering into the conflict 
with the Thebans on our side, what had we a 
right to expect in case we had not even had 
them as allies, and they had attached themselves 
to Philip, in whose behalf at that time this fellow 
exerted all his power of lungs ? And if now, 
when the battle was fought within three days 5 
march of Attica, the city was involved in such 
danger and alarm, what should we have a right 
to expect if this same disaster had taken place 
somewhere in our territory ? [ttou tt)q x^P a ^ 
Do you think that even now we should have 
stood firmly, should have met in public assembly, 
should have recovered our breath [ava-Trvtvaai] ? 
One, two, or three days, furnished many of the 
things necessary to the safety [7roXXa rwv uq 

GWT^piav] of the city. But at that time . 

It is. however, unbecoming to speak of events 
of which we have even been spared the trial 
[a ye (jy)§e ttuoclv eSw/ce] by the kindness of some 
god, and by the interposition of this alliance, 
which you now attack, as a shield before the 
state." 



96 



P. 138. tot e$ei ere wpoXeyuv* a §1 fir/, vwevOvvog 
£i, k. r. X. B., in his translation, generalizes the 
remarks of A., and translates them in the past 
tense, totally forgetting the pointed antithesis 
of the Greek ; " If to you alone, of all others, 
the future had been revealed at the time of our 
public deliberations upon these matters, you 
were bound to disclose it [then ; but 7rpo\eyeiv is 
a much stronger word than ' disclose'] ; if you 
did not foresee it, you were [are] responsible 
for being as ignorant as the rest." 

Ibid, rt fiaXXov hfxov <jv TavTa KaTYjyopeig ?? eyw 

gov ; B. here makes a bold translation, totally 
unwarranted by the original, and also writes a 
sentence which is not English : " How dare you, 
then, accuse me on this score, any more than I 
am to accuse you V Simply, " Why should 
you bring this accusation against me, any more 
than I should against you ?" 

P. 139. oVep 8 av o (j>av\6raT0Q Kai StKTjueveoraroc 
av9pd)7rog 7T0irj(ja£ ry 7r6\u, tovto TrsTroirjKiog eiri 

roig <TUjuj3a<nv ^rjracrat. B. "But whatever the 
meanest and most disaffected person could do, 
that you are found throughout these transactions to 
have done." The meaning of A. is as clear as 
words can make it, and yet B. cannot see it. 
" Every step which the man of the most worthless 
character, and of the most determined hostility 
to the state, would have taken, that you are 

6 



97 



found to have taken upon all these events, and 
at the same time that Aristratus in Naxus, &c. 
are bringing the friends of Athens to trial [not, 
as B. translates, " are condemning ;" that would 
be Karaicpivovcri, not Kpivovai], even at Athens 
iEschines is accusing [not " impeaching"] De- 
mosthenes." 

Hid. Kairoi otia) ra rwv EXXrjvwv arvyji/uiaTa 
kvzvioKifiuv curt/earo, aTTo\h)\zvai juiaWov OVTOQ £0TI 
Sifcaioc, V KciTriyopuv Iripov' /cai orw Gvvtvr}v6yaaiv 
ol avroi icaipoi /cat rote Trjg 7ro\e(s)g eyOpoig, ovk evi 
tovtov tvvovv etvat ry 7rarotSt. Literally thus : 

" And yet the man to whom the misfortunes of 
the Greeks served as the foundation for his own 
distinguished position in society [or more shortly, 
" who rose to consideration upon the misfortunes 
of the Greeks,"] should rather be permitted to 
perish, than to accuse another ; and that citizen, 
who has profited by the emergencies, which have 
proved advantageous to the enemies of the state, 
cannot be well affected to his country." B. trans- 
lates thus : " Yet ought that man, whose renoivn 
lies in the misfortunes of Greece, rather to perish, 
than to accuse another; and that man cannot 
be a friend to his country, whose purposes are 
served by the same events as benefit her enemies." 

P. 140. 'E^aSr) Se 7roAt;c tVt rote <rvju|3£j3?j/co<7tv 

eyKUTai. B. " Since he dwells so much on the 
actual events." Much stronger : " Since he 

E 



98 



attacks with much vehemence the accidents which 
have befallen us." 

Ibid. oi>S ovtwq cnrocFTariov ry 7roXa tovtwv r\v, 

k. t. X. B. very weakly, thus : " Not even then 
ought the country to have acted otherwise than 
she did, [rather, " not even then ought the 
country to have receded from," or "deserted, 
her post,"] if she had any regard either for her 
glory, or her ancestry, or her posterity" [no; 
all future time, rov fizWovToq aiwvoc]- 

P. 141. Nvv fiev ye air or vyCiv Sofcei rwv 7rpa*y- 

juarwv, k. r. X. B. " Now, indeed, she is supposed 
to have been frustrated in her proceedings, the 
lot of all mortals, if Providence so wills it ; but 
then, had she, after aspiring to iheforemost place 
among the other states, abandoned the attempt, 
she would have borne the blame of delivering 
them all over to Philip. For if she had given 
up without a struggle all that your forefathers 
encountered every danger to win, who but would 
have spurned you, iEschines ? Not the country 
indeed, not meT This frittering away of the 
nervous expressions of A. is all but high treason 
against him. But the passage is wrongly, as 
well as weakly, translated : " For now, indeed, 
she appears to have failed in the accomplishment 
of her objects, which is the common fate of all 
men, when so it pleases Heaven : but then, as 
she thought fit to take her stand at the head of 



99 



the other states of Greece, she would, had she 
subsequently shrunk from that post of honour, 
have incurred the obloquy of having betrayed 
them, one and all, into the hands of Philip. 
For, if, voluntarily, and without an obstinate 
struggle, those honours had been abandoned, for 
which our ancestors braved every danger, where 
is the man who would not have spit on you with 
loathing ? God forbid that I should say, either 
on the city, or on me !" 

P. 142. aXX a-y<*m£o/u£vi7 . . . . /cat kiv^vvsvovgci 
navra tov aitova StarfTfAcfce* Kai ravO ovtio cewva 
teat 7rpoar)KovTa toiq vfjLETepoig r)0s<riv v/jluq VTroXa/u* 
fiavtT sivai, wars /ecu twv 7rpoy6vu)v tovq ravra 
irpa^avrag paXier ETraivuTe. B. " Struggling for 

supremacy and power and glory, and confront- 
ing all hazards, she has lived through all ages of 
her history. And yourselves feel that this is 
noble and fitting your character, when you extol 
such conduct in your ancestors." These are 
spirited sentences, but they come not up to the 
meaning of A. This is nearer : " To struggle 
for precedency [VpwraW, not apyyiq, as B. trans- 
lates,] and honour, [tijx^q, not "power,"] and 
glory ; and to confront every danger in such a 
cause, has been throughout all time, and still is, 
her constant determination. And this you think 
so noble, and so consistent with your [national] 
feelings, that even among your own ancestors 

e2 



100 



you extol those most who bore a part in such 
struggles." There is great rhetorical artifice in 
the words which A. has here chosen as the ob- 
jects of the struggle. They are precedency, 
honour, glory, — all mere titular distinctions ; 
not supremacy, or power, or territory, — all solid 
marks of aggrandisement. The use of such ex- 
pressions would have deprived the Athenians of 
all reputation for disinterestedness, which it is 
the aim of A. to impute to them indirectly in 
this passage ; and for which (God knows how 
untruly !) he afterwards openly claims credit on 
the part of his countrymen. This consideration 
has been entirely overlooked by Lord B. in his 
translation. 

P. 143. a\X oh& iyv feiovv, k. r. X. B. « They 
would not deign to live, if the life of liberty were 
denied to them." Why not literally, "They 
deemed it foul scorn to live, unless they could 
live in freedom ?" 

Ibid, tov tt)q ufxapixkvr)Q Kal tov avTOfxaTOv Oava- 

tov Trepifxtvu, " awaits his destined end in the 
course of nature," B., who does not notice that 
the repeated insertion of the article before Qava- 
tov shows that A. was drawing a distinction 

between tov tt)q u/j.apfxivrig Qdvarovy and tov avTO- 

fxarov Oavarov. We cannot translate the passage 
literally, but the meaning appears to be this : 
" Waits patiently till his death arrives from an 



101 



injury inflicted by fate [i. e. some fatal accident] 
or from the course of nature." Dryden in his 
OEdipus has drawn a beautiful picture of what 
A. here calls Oavarog avTOfxaToc. It is the best 
comment that can be written on the meaning of 
the phrase : 

" Of no distemper, of no blast he died, 

But fell like autumn fruit that mellow'd long : 
E'en wonder'd at, because he dropt no sooner. 
Fate seem'd to wind him up for fourscore years, 
Yet freshly ran he on ten winters more : 
Till, like a clock, worn out with eating time, 
The wheels of weary life at last stood still!" 

P. 144. h fxev Tolvvv tovt kire^upovv \eyuv, ug 
syw ovk ttrS' ogtiq ovk av ukotwq £7rrnjU7j<xa£ 

jxoi. B. here so interprets A. as to make him 
mean directly contrary to what he says : " If, 
then, I should take upon me to affirm that it was 
I who made you entertain sentiments worthy of 
your forefathers, there lives not the man who could 
justly blame me." There can be no doubt that 
what A. says and means is this : " If / had at- 
tempted to affirm that it was I who induced you 
to entertain sentiments worthy of your ancestors, 
there lives not a man who would not have just 
cause to reprove me," meaning to say, " I should 
have been justly open to reprehension." But 

" When timorous wits go round or ford the shore, 
B. shoots the gulf, and is already o'er." 

E 3 



102 

Ibid. We are now come " within the sacred 
precincts," as B. phrases it, of the famous oath 
itself: and we find his lordship intruding as 
unhallowed a hand into it as any of the previous 
translators on whom he has poured the vials of 
his criticism. We intend to show that he has 
rendered it neither faithfully nor spiritedly. As 
English, his translation is very defective in 
point of style, — as a translation from the Greek, 
it is a strange mixture of the most pompous 
pretension, and of the most crass ignorance. 
Though he has a note in explanation of the 

words TrpoKivSvvevGavTCLQ and Trapara^ajUievovQ^ it 

is of no use except to fill up so much blank 
paper ; for he explains both words erroneously, 
being as unacquainted with the grammar as he 
is with the analogies of the Greek language. 
YlpoKivlwzvb) is not " to rush to destruction ;" it 
is to stand in the front rank against danger, or, 
as Tyrtaeus expresses it, Siaj3ac kv irpoiiay^oiai 
fuiEveiv NwXe^utw^. Yla^araTro^ai in the middle 
voice is, " to range one's self," and not, except 
by inference, to " stand" in battle-array. There 
is volition, — an idea of volunteering, — contained 
in the word 7rapara£a/u£vovc, which A. has se- 
lected on that very account in ■ preference to 

either 7rapaTay0evTaq, or TrapaTZTayiikvovq. Kf- 

Xprjvrcu rv^v is not " shared the fortune." We 
can scarcely believe that his lordship has so 



103 



translated it from some hallucination that /cs- 
X/orjvrcu is derived from Kepavwfiai. But we re- 
turn again to our old but dangerous practice of 
contrasting a very literal translation of our own 
with that of his lordship's. And on this occa- 
sion we will place our own translation first : 
" But this man, in attacking the whole of my 
conduct, and in urging you to harshness against 
me as the author of the alarms and dangers 
which then pressed upon the country, displays 
an eager longing to filch from me the present 
honour of these transactions, whilst he is openly 
robbing you of those proud eulogies which are to 
endure to all future ages. For if, acting on the 
idea that I did not pursue the very best policy 
for the state, you shall pass a vote of condemna- 
tion against my friend near me, it will be 
thought that you were yourselves guilty of error, 
not that you were mere sufferers under circum- 
stances owing to the unkindness of fortune. 
But it cannot be, it cannot be, that you were 
guilty of error, men of Athens, in having taken 
upon yourselves the danger of asserting the li- 
berty and the safety of all the states of Greece. 
No — by those of your forefathers, who at Mara- 
thon were the first to encounter the brunt of 
danger ; and by those who at Plataea ranged 
themselves in battle-array against the foe ; and 
by those who at Salamis fought the sea-fight ; 

e 4 



104 



and by those who warred at Artemisium, and 
by many others, the gallant soldiers now laid 
under the national monuments; to whom the 
city gave public burial, deeming them all alike 
worthy of the same honour, and not confining 
it to those only who had been successful and 
victorious. With strict justice, — for the duty 
of gallant soldiers was performed by all, — but 
the fortune to which they submitted was that 
assigned to each by the will of Heaven.' 3 We 
now subjoin the translation of Lord B. : — 

"But iEschines, impeaching my whole con- 
duct, and bidding you hold me cheap [fjuoi 
TriKptjg fx £tv ] as the cause of the country's 
alarms and perils, would fain strip me of the 
credit at this moment [t^q ug t6 wapov n^g 
anoGTepriGai yXi^srai] and thus deprive you of 

the glory ever after [ra S* kq airavra tov Aonrov 
yjpovov eyKOJ/uiia vjulwv atyaipUTaC\. For if you 

condemn Ctesiphon on account of my policy 
having been wrong [ou jSeXncrra], you will be 
proved (qy ?) to have yourselves done wrong, 
instead of merely suffering under the dispensa- 
tions of fortune. But it is not* true ! It is not 
true that you have done wrong, men of Athens, 
in fighting the battle [klvSwov apa^voi] of all 
Greece for her freedom and salvation ! No ! by 
your forefathers who for that cause [not in the 
Greek] rushed upon destruction at Marathon, 



105 



and T^y those who stood in battle array at 
Platsea, and those who fought the sea-fight at 
Salamis, and by the warriors of Artemisium, 
and by all the others who now repose in 
the sepulchres of the nation, — gallant men, — 
and to all of whom, iEschines, the state decreed 
a public funeral [idaxfse], deeming that they too 
had earned such honours, not those only w 7 ho 
had combated fortunately, and had come off 
victorious — and with strict justice; for the duty 
of the brave had been done by all : but what 
fortune Providence bestows on each, that they 
had shared." 

And yet Lord B. says, " One thing is clear, 
that the more simply this celebrated piece is 
rendered, the better. The original owes much 
of its sublimity to its great simplicity." 

P. 148. /ecu Trapakafifidvuv ye ajxa ttj ficucTtipia 
Kai rw avjuif36\a) to tyoovrifia to tj]Q noXswg, K. r. A. 

B. thus : " Each of you, in coming to decide 
upon state prosecutions, should together with 
the staff and badge of justice !! ! take upon him- 
self the impression of the country's greatness, if 
you feel that you should act up to those worthy 
recollections." And in a note on the words 
" badge of justice" he adds, " the sticks and 
balls used in voting, literally, but the words also 
mean 'staff and badge.'" We really cannot 
conceive what B. was dreaming about, when he 

e 5 



106 



gave us this specimen of translation and of 
note-making. 2u^j3oXov, a badge ! ! ! Was his 
lordship meditating on the " badge" worn by a 
former race of English paupers, and thinking of 
re-imposing it as a mark of his philanthropy on 
the present generation of them, or, at least, on 
that portion of it which he described as eating 
up his Westmoreland estates ? But then, again, 
the end is not consistent with the beginning ; 
for, hey ! presto ! the " badge" is transformed 
into " balls," and we are told of "sticks and 
balls" used in voting. We might as well have 
been told of "cups and balls" used in juggling; 
and, considering what "a thimble-rigger" his 
lordship has been and still is, we are surprised 
that we were not, for one is just as near to the 
meaning of A. as the other. We are almost 
ashamed of explaining a matter so familiar to 
every school-boy. To discharge the judicial 
business of Athens there were annually chosen 
by lot, in equal portions out of each of the ten 
tribes, 6000 citizens. This number was again 
divided into ten sections of 600 members each, 
the members being of different tribes, and each 
section being known by one of the first ten 
letters of the alphabet. Now besides the He- 
lisea there were nine other courts in Attica. 
Over these ten courts were suspended the same 
ten letters of the alphabet which we have 



107 



already mentioned. This being premised, we 
now proceed to extract from a note of Mr. 
Mitchell (Wasps of Aristophanes, v. 918) an 
explanation of the mode in which the judges 
for each court were drafted off into them ; for 
that will explain the £Wrr/ s oia and av^oXov 
mentioned in this passage of A. : " Ten tablets, 
bearing the same ten letters, being thrown into 
a vessel, section A, or its representative, dipped 
into the vessel, and drew up, it might be, the 
letter K. That letter determined the court to 
which the judicial labours of section A were for 
that day to be directed. Section B took its dip, 
and drew up the letter F : the letter F indi- 
cated, in like manner, the scene of section B.s 
occupation, and so till the eight remaining sec- 
tions were disposed of. ... . The courts having 
been allotted, each member of a section received 
a staff (paj3ooc) and a counter (avjifioXov). The 
staff, [which Aristophanes as well as A. calls 
fiaKTTipia] by the letter and colour impressed 
upon it, directed him to the court where his 
judicial functions were to be exercised ; the ex- 
hibition of the counter to the proper functionary 
entitled him to his judicial fee. 5 ' From this it 
will be seen that B. is quite as incorrect in 
translating this phrase in his text by the words 
" staff and badge of justice," as he is in his notes, 
by translating it by the words " the sticks and 

e6 



108 



balls used in voting." But such is ever the 
case with the blindfold blows of inattention and 
ignorance. 

P. 149. zwu^rj toivvv cVotrjffavro tiiv £/ocArj<jiai>, 
irpoarjyov eiceivovg wpoTepovg, Sia ro rrjv tiov gvjx- 

pdywv raiiv eKeivovg zyziv. " The assembly being 
convoked, the Macedonian ambassadors were first 
introduced, having been received in the quality of 
allies," B. More properly : " after the Thebans 
had formed their assembly, they introduced the 
Macedonians first, on account of their holding 
the rank of allies." These are, perhaps, trifles ; 
but then, one is right and the other wrong. So 
in p. 150, \afieiv Siktiv is not " seek redress," but 
" take vengeance :" ow£juj3aAovrac uq ttjv 'Attik^v, 
is not " joining in the march upon Attica," but 
much more, "joining in the irruption into, or 

invasion of, Attica." Ta ev ry BoiiDTta ^lapiraaQr)- 

(j6(jiEva vtto rov 7roX£/uou, is not " all the Boeotian 
resources would be squandered in war ;" but 
much w 7 orse, "All the cattle, and slaves, and other 
property in Bceotia, [see the former part of the 
sentence] would be captured and carried away 
as booty, in consequence of the war." 

P. 150. a 8 TJ.UUC 7TpO£ TCLVTCL O.VT H7T O flZV , TO, 

fikv KaO ifcacTTa eyu) filv clvtl wavrog a'v r«^i?)(7aijui?v 
uireiv rov j3toi> # vjjlclq Se SeSoi/ca, firj, TraozXrikvQoTwv 
tCjv Kaipiov, wGwep av u Kara/cXucTjUOv yeyevrjaOai r<ov 
TTpayjuLaTwv riyov/mevoi, fxaraiov oy\ov tovq irepi rov- 



109 

twv \6yovQ vojjligk)ti. " But the answer which 
we made to these things, / should take more 
delight in detailing point by point than any thing 
in the whole world, only I am apprehensive lest, 
now the occasion is passed away, you should 
consider that some deluge has overwhelmed 
those transactions, and regard all that could be 
said upon the subject as keeping up a fruitless 
contention respecting them." B. More forcibly, 
we think, and certainly more literally, thus : 
" But the refutation, which we gave to those 
charges, I should value as my whole life, [i. e. I 
should think it worth my whole life,] to repeat 
point by point ; but I fear lest, now that the 
crisis is over, you should form the idea that a 
sort of deluge had overwhelmed the transactions, 
and should, therefore, consider all that I could 
say upon them as mere empty noise." 

P. 151. kcl'ltoi, Tpia ev etceivy ry rifxipa ttclgiv 
avOpwiroig e^ei^av eyKWfJLia Qrifiaioi kclO vjulwv tcl 

KaWiGTa. " Why, on that day the Thebans 
thrice pronounced the noblest panegyric upon 
you," B. The Thebans did no such thing : they 
did not pronounce one ; nor does A. say they 
did. Translate : " Why, the Thebans showed 
to all mankind that you deserved on that day 
panegyrics for three qualities the most noble ; 
one for your gallantry, another for your justice, 
and a third for your self-command." 



110 



P. 152. Sic GVjUL7rapaTd^ajntvoi Tag Trpwrag 
fiayac, rr\v art tov Trorajdov, Kai rrjv yeifiepivriv, 

k. t. A. 6i On two occasions, while serving with 
them, the one in the first engagement near the 
river, the other in the winter campaign" B. 
Here his lordship offends against history. 
There were two battles, both indecisive, fought 
by the Athenians and Thebans against Philip, 
before the fatal battle of Chseronea. There 
were not two engagements near the river, nor 
does A. say that there were ; there was not, as 
Mr. Clinton has shown in his Fasti Hellenici, 
any winter campaign intervening between the 
capture of Elatea, and " that dishonest victory," 
of which the mere report is very untruly said 
to have " killed that old man eloquent," Isocra- 
tes. The whole campaign was finished within 
fifty days after the news arrived at Athens of 
Philip's entrance into Phocis. Reiske states, 
that the battle at the river was at Cephissus ; 
and that the other battle here alluded to, was a 
battle in a storm, as at Arginusae. Mr. Clinton 
thinks that " the word ^u^pivriv is corrupt — 
perhaps capable of another interpretation." 
Translate : " Having twice stood in line with 
them in the first battles ; in that near the river, 
and in that fought during the storm." Mr* 
Thirl wall, in his History of Greece, vol. vi. p. 66, 
observes, that " battle of the storm" is not quite 



Ill 



satisfactory ; but that " any explanation is pre- 
ferable to that of the ' winter-battle/ as if the 
other, which it is manifest, from the orator's 
description, took place within a short time of it, 
had been fought at a different season." 

P. 153. rovg ofULWfjiOKorag tovq Oeovg. " Those 

gods, in whose presence you have this day 
sworn," B. Not a word about " this day" is 
said in the original ; and B. would not have in- 
terpolated it, had he known, that at the com- 
mencement of the judicial year at Athens, all 
the citizens chosen by lot as dicasts, took the 
solemn Heliastic oath in the place Ardettus, 
from w r hich they derived the most important of 
their appellations, 01 o^wjuo/cotcc. Mitchell says, 
that it is a matter of dispute, whether they took 
a shorter oath at each sitting of a court ; but is 
inclined to think that probability, nothing more, 
is in favour of the practice. 

Ibid. s\v7thto opiov, is not " was groaning 
over," but " was sorrowful to see," &c. 

P. 154. iv uZr\rz, f) Efjirj avvkyzia Kai wXavot . . . 

rt cnTupya<jaTo. B. " That you may see whether 
my constancy and journeyings, &c. worked any 
good" No : " That you may see what mischief 
was prevented by my constancy," &c. 

P. 155. aXX o fxlv ypcKpuiv ovk av ewpeapevcrev, 
o ce irpecrpevwv ovk av eypaipev* virikuinro yao 
avTtov zkckjtoq wvtu) a/za fxlv paoTt*)vr\v, afxa §', u ti 



112 



yiyvoiT, ava^opav. " He that propounded de- 
crees did not go ambassador, and that went am- 
bassador did not propound decrees ; but each 
secured his own ease, and, if any thing went 
wrong, his escape," B. And then he adds, in a 
note, what every scholar will be surprised to 
hear, that avatyopa " is literally a dipping up 1 an 
emersion ! ! a rising out of the mess, or sea, of 
troubles ! ! ! Harpocratio has justly explained it 

by the words, to avcKpepeiv rrjv aiTiav tCov ajmapTrj- 

OevTiov kir aWovg" If his lordship had at- 
tended to the particles — av, for instance — of 
which he talks so much in his preface, he would 
have translated this passage differently. It may 
be thus rendered : " He that proposed a decree 
would not have gone on an embassy, and he that 
went on an embassy would not have proposed a 
decree ; for each of them left a loop-hole for 
himself, through which he could not only secure 
his own ease, but also transfer the blame of any 
accident to others." 

Ibid. '^TrziruGfJLTqv virep kfxavTOv, Tvyov ply av- 
aiaOriTiov, o/moq 8 £7r£7rei<7/irjv, jutjte ypa<povT av kfxov 

ypa\pai fisXriov fA^eva. B. " I had persuaded 
myself, groundlessly, peradventure, yet still I 
had persuaded myself that no propounder of de- 
crees could propound better than mine." A. is 
by no means so vain and egotistical as his trans- 
lator represents him. What he says is this : 



113 



" I had the conviction, perhaps foolishly, but still 
I had the conviction with respect to myself, 
that no one in proposing measures would have 
proposed measures better than mine," &c. There 
is some difference between " would" and " could" 
in such a case. 

P. 156. ^i]0t(Tjuara, ra tots /ulev cnroTrefavyoTa, viro 

tovtov Ss ouSe ypatyevra. " Decrees which were 
at the time absolved, and which JEschines never 
so much as impeached." We must again pro- 
test against the propensity of B. to make every 
action and indictment mentioned in A. an im- 
peachment. Here ypafyevTa is indicted by a 
ypacf>ri TrapavofiMv, the ypatyr) being what the civil 
lawyers call the " libellus actionis." In the very 
next page he mistranslates in the same manner, 

kcu ravr AiGylvriQ ovt* eSiw^ev, ovre rw ypaipafmivto 

avyKciTYiyopricje. "And these decrees iEschines 
himself never attacked, nor joined in attacking." 
It should be, " Against these decrees iEschines 
neither came forward as a prosecutor himself, 
nor assisted in the accusation of the party who 
indicted them [for illegality]." 

Pp. 157, 158. 'AAX' ovk r\v otjieu, k. r. X. B. 
translates this section as follows : " But I con- 
ceive it was not at that time possible to do 
what iEschines is now doing, to cull out from 
times long gone by, and from a multitude of de- 
crees, such points as no one had any notice of 



114 



[a /U7jr6 TrpoYjSei /u^Scec]) nor could expect [wrjSr?] 
to hear brought forward this day, and then to 
inveigh against them, and make a show of say- 
ing something [So/cav ™ Xeyuv], by falsifying 
dates, and substituting wrong [xpevSug] motives 
of action for the true ones. Such things were 
not then possible : but the statements should have 
been made while the truth itself was accessible, and 
while your recollection of men's conduct was fresh, 
and the things in question were still all but actually in 
your hands. Wherefore avoiding the trial [roue 
fXt-y^ouc] at the date of the transactions, he 
now comes forward, when it is too late [yarepov^ 
expecting you, as it should seem, to make this 
proceeding a contest of oratory [jor?rojowv], and 
not an examination of public conduct, a discus- 
sion of words [Aoywv], and not an inquiry into 
the interests of the country." Now we propose 
the following as a much more close, and literal, 
and correct translation : " It was not possible, I 
think, to deal at that time in the malignant 
calumnies, which JEschines employs at present 
in consequence of his having selected from old 
dates and numerous decrees points on which no- 
body could be provided with previous knowledge, 
or even with an idea that they would be urged 
in debate to-day ; nor to appear to speak to the 
purpose [Xeyeiv n, — it is needless to illustrate 
this phrase, or we might refer to the (Ed. R. 



115 



1475], in consequence of having altered dates, 
and having substituted false pretexts for real 
motives of action. This, I repeat; was not pos- 
sible at that time ; and yet, in the presence of 
truth itself, in the proximity of the events [eV 

a\)T7]Q T7)Q a\ri0eiag 9 eyyuc rwv epywvj, whilst you 

still had every one of them in your memories 
and all but in your hands, all these arguments 
might have been used [ttclvtzq syiyvovr av ol 
Xoyot]. But having shrunk from the production 
of proofs at the time of the transactions them- 
selves, he now comes forward at this late hour 
[vcrrfjoov], fancying, as it appears to me, that 
you are going to institute a contest of orators, 
and not a solemn inquiry into public measures, 
and that there will be an adjudication on 
speeches, not on what are the interests of the 
country. 55 

P. 159. wc aaOpov ccrri <j>vou irav o n av fxr\ Sacaiwg 

\i 7T£7rpa-yjU£vov. " Of how perishable a nature is 
every thing hatched in iniquity? B. This is an- 
other " loan of wit " to A. His lordship, how- 
ever, has more tban one chick of this kind, and 
may therefore laugh at the old proverb. 

P. 160. ev upnvY) tt\v Attiktjv sk OaXarTtjg eivai 

navra tov TroXefiov. " Attica enjoyed a maritime 
peace during the whole war," B. This is too 
strong. A. only says, " Attica was in peace on 



116 



the sea-board [i. e. on her coasts] during the 
whole war." 

P. 161. OvKZTi 7rf>o(m#??/ii k. r. X. " I do not 
add any thing on that cruelty having been expe- 
rienced by others, which Philip, whenever he had 
the mastery, invariably showed; while of the 
good will which he affected towards you, when 
casting about how he might effect his other pur- 
poses, you deservedly [/caXwc 7roioWr€c] reaped 
the fruits." B. It is to be recollected that A. has 
just been adopting a metaphor from the mode of 
keeping accounts in Greece. I would, therefore, 
translate as follows : " I no longer add it as an 
item to the credit side of my account, that it fell to 
the lot of others to experience the cruelty which 
made itself seen in every place where Philip ren- 
dered himself uncontrolled master of the inhabi- 
tants, and that you reaped the fruits : much good 
may they do you [/caXwc ttoiovvtsq : this phrase is 
generally used with a degree of sarcasm or irony, 
and its idiomatic signification is such as I have 
stated. See Hermann's Viger. Reiske, whose 
Latin translation B. invariably follows, translates 
it et merito] ; of the kindness which he was ever 
pretending for you, when he was casting himself 
about for the rest of his purposes." - 

P. 162. 07r\lTT}V S 7] l7T7T£a, 7tX|7V TbJV OIKSHDV , 

obSeva. " Of infantry or cavalry, except common 



117 



citizens, not a man." No : " except of our own." 
This is evident from A.'s boast soon after, that 
he collected for the state 15000 foreign [£evoi] 
infantry and 2000 cavalry. 

P. 164. Tivog Kvpioq t\v\ ov^evog. Avto yap to 
SrijULriyopziv irpCjTOv, ov fiovov fizreiyov eyw, /c. r. A. 
" What sway had I? For first this power of 
haranguing, the only power I possessed, you gave 
equally to his hirelings and me." Rather, " Of 
what was I the master? Of nothing [B. omits 
this]. For, first, the very power of addressing 
the people, the only power in which I had a share" 
&c. 

P. 1 66. awXavg S' r) OaXarra vtto tlov £/c tx\q Ei- 

|3oiac opfjLWjuiEvwv \rjGTU)v ykyovzv ; "that the sea had 
been made unnavigable by the privateers stalking 
forth from Eubcea?" B. Why not literally, "That 
the sea had been cleared of our vessels by priva- 
teers sailing from the harbours of Eubcea ?" Wolff 
may have used the very fine word grassantes for 
opjULWjjLevtov ; but if he did, he was quite w T rong in 
giving it that signification, and B. ought to have 
known it. 

Ibid. 7rovrjp6v o GVKO(j)avTrig aa, km 7ravra- 
ypOev fia<JKavov /cat ^iXainov. " A wicked thing 

is a calumniator ever ; and in every way a 
slanderous and a querulous thing." In conse- 
quence of w T hat follows, we w r ould translate, " A 
wicked animal is the calumniator ever, and in 



118 



every way malignant, and fond of imputing 
faults." (j>i\aiTiov is a much stronger word than 
" querulous." 

P. 167. tovto §£ Kai <f>v(TU KivaSog TavOpumov 
haTiv, ovZkv k£apyj\q vydc 7rziroir)KOQ oi/§ h\tvQzoov , 
avroTpayiKOQ iri9r}Kog^ apovpaiogOivofxaoq^Trapda^jiog 

pfiTiop. B., " But this creature is despicable by 
nature, and incapable of any trace of all generous 
and noble deeds, ape of a tragedian, (Enomaus of 
the barn, spurious orator." We would translate 
thus : " But a fox even by nature is this mani- 
kin, who x , from the beginning, never did any 
thing honest, or gentlemanly ; a very ape of a 
tragedian, [meaning what we call a tragic actor 
at second hand ! " I hate e'en Garrick's self at 
second hand,"] an (Enomaus for rustic andiences, 
an orator of counterfeit stamp." In a note his 
lordship says, that 6fc irapaG-niioq is adulterated, or 
base, or spurious ;" and after having translated 
the word himself as " base-coin orator," finds 
fault with Francis for translating it by the words 
" orator of false and adulterate coin." Fran- 
cis had evidently a correct notion of the mean- 
ing of the word, though he has not expressed it 
quite correctly. This metaphor was a favourite 
one with Aristophanes. In the Plutus he twice 
uses the phrase, elvai tov irovr^pov /cojUjuaroc. In. 
the Acharnians he speaks of av^papia poyOripa, 

irapaKZKOfJifiiva, ' Art/xa Kai Trapacrrffjia' and in the 



119 



Frogs, vv. 682 — 697, he has a long compa- 
rison between these " base-coin" orators, and the 
copper-gold coinage introduced at Athens as a 
substitute for the old Attic silver one, which 
was remarkable for its purity and intrinsic worth. 
The passage, which was admirably translated by 
the Right Hon. J. H. Frere, in Blackwood's 
Magazine some years ago, is worth consulting for 
the light it throws upon the phrase of A. l 

P. 169. Kai ovk aiayyvu top clvtov eig ts fuaXaiciav 
<TKU)7TT(i)v, Kai tt)<z <$>i\'nnrov cWafiewc a^uov, eva ovra 9 

1 We subjoin the translation : 

" Often-times have we reflected on a similar abuse. 

In the choice of men for office, and of cows for 
common use. 

For your old and standard pieces, valued, and ap- 
proved, and tried, 

Here among the Grecian nations, and in all the world 
beside ; 

Recognised in every realm for lawful stamp and pure 
assay, 

Are rejected and abandoned for the coin of yesterday ; 

For a vile adulterate issue, dipt, and counterfeit, and 
base, 

Which the traffic of the city passes current in their 
place : 

And the men, who stand for office, noted for acknow- 
ledged worth, 

And for manly deeds of honour, and for honourable 
birth ; 

Trained in exercise and art, in sacred dance and song, 

Are rejected and supplanted by a base ignoble throng ; 

Foreign 



120 

KpeiTTb) yevtaOai', Kai ravra roig Xoyoig' tlvoq yap 
aXXov Kvpiog r)V syw ; ov yap rrjc yt e/caarou \pvyr)G, 

k. t. X. B. " Are you not ashamed, at the 
moment you are upbraiding me for weakness, 
to require that I should defy him singlehanded, 
and by force of words alone ? For what other 
weapons had I ? Certainly not the lives of men, 
nor the fortune of warriors, nor the military 
operations, of which you are so blundering as to 
demand an account at my hands." As his 
lordship professes that his translation is a work 
calculated to " assist the student of the rheto- 
rical art," as well as the student of the Greek 
language, we may be forgiven for calling atten- 
tion to the want of rhetorical art exhibited in 
this extract by B. A. throughout this oration 
shows great skill in avoiding, wherever he can, 
all allusion to himself in the first person, and 
very often defends himself under the guise of a 
third party. B. however, on more occasions 
than the present, makes A. egotistical in his 

Foreign stamp, and vulgar metal, raise them to com- 
mand and place, 

Brazen counterfeit pretenders, scoundrels of a scoun- 
drel race ; 

Whom the state in former ages scarce would have 
allowed to stand 

At the sacrifice of outcasts as the scapegoats of the 
land." 



121 



translation, where he is not so in the Greek. B. 
also transposes the abusive words, ovtw (tkciioq a, 
which A. had kept back as a clincher to the 
close of the sentence, and inserts them in the 
middle of it, thereby losing the whole effect of 
the previous train of reasoning w 7 hich A. had 
prepared to render his invective not only in- 
telligible, but also palatable to his hearers. We 
could, if necessary, point out in this very oration 
half-a-dozen instances in which A. reserves some 
expression of extreme virulence to the very 
last word of the sentence, in order to leave a 
rankling venom in the wounds which he had 
previously inflicted. We propose the following 
translation : " Are you not ashamed to gibe an 
individual for cowardice, and to insist at the 
same time, that, singlehanded as he was, he 
ought to have been victorious over the power of 
Philip, and that too by means of words alone ? 
For of what else had I the disposal? Certainly not 
of the lives of individuals, nor of the fortune of 
the combatants, nor of the skill of the general, for 
which you are seeking to make me responsible, 
left-handed bungler that you are !" B. does not 
seem aware of the contempt in which the an- 
cient Greeks held all left-handed persons. We 
should perhaps say, " Dolt that you are." 

Iota. aAAa priv, wv y av o pr\Twp vnevOvvog eir), 
iraaav k^kraaiv Aa/u/3av£* ov irapaiTOVfiai. B. " But 

F 



122 



whatever a minister can be accountable for, 
make of that the strictest scrutiny, and I do 
not object." Rather, " But into any measures, 
for which the public man may be responsible, 
make any scrutiny, however strict. I do not 
shrink from it." 

P. 171. Kai fxzTa tclvtcl <jvaravris)v y oiq r)v sVi/ueAec 
kclkioq ejus 7roiav, Kai yoatyaq, evOvvaq, uvayytXiaq, 
TvavTa ravra kirayovrwv fioi, ov Si eavrwv to ye 
7rpcoTov, aWa Si wv juaXicS' virekafifiavov ayvot)- 

0>](T£ar0ai. " And afterwards when those who 
were seeking my destruction combined together, 
and pressed against me, prosecutions, reckon- 
ings, treasonable charges, and all the rest of it ! 
not at first in their own persons, but through 
those behind whom they thought they might 
skulk" B. His lordship again shows his ignor- 
ance of the proceedings of the courts of judicature 
at Athens. We would translate as follows : 
" And after this, when they who were anxious 
to do me injury, were combining and heaping 
upon me indictments, demands for the accounts of 
my administration, impeachments for high crimes 
and misdemeanours, and every sort of prosecution, 
not in their own persons at first, but in the 
persons of those behind whom they thought they 
should be most completely screened from public 
knowledge." 

Ibid. Ovkovv ev jucv oiq eiar\yye\\6fAy)v, orz airvpr\- 



123 



tyiCeaQe juou, /cat ro 7T€/u7rrov /ulpog tiov i//^wv toiq 
SitJKovGiv ov /LtereSiSore, tot e\pr)(j)i^ea6e ra apiGTa fue 
TrpiiTTUv* ev oig Se Tag ypci(pag airefyvyov, k. r. A. 

In translating this passage, B. has adopted the 
idea of Stock, that ev olg means ev olg ^povoig. 
His version is as follows : "When, therefore, on 
my trial for treason, you acquitted me, and did 
not give my prosecutors a fifth of the votes, you 
decided that my conduct had been unexception- 
able. When I was acquitted of illegally pro- 
pounding, / was proved, to have both advised, 
and to have propounded according to law. When 
you countersigned the discharge of my accounts, 
you further admitted that I had acted in all re- 
spects honestly and incorruptibly." Now, with 
all deference to Stock, we are of opinion that he 
was w 7 rong in supposing that the ev olg, which is 
three times repeated, and is once used in con- 
junction with oTe, means here " the time when." 
We are of opinion that in all three instances it 
contains the ground on which A. was acquitted. 
We would, therefore, translate as follows: — 
" Therefore, on the grounds whereon I was im- 
peached, when you declared me not guilty, and 
did not give the fifth part of the votes to the pro- 
secutors, you then voted that my measures were 
most excellent : and on the grounds on w 7 hich I 
was acquitted upon the indictments, I showed 
that all was constitutional which I had advised 

f2 



124 



and propounded : and on the grounds on which 
you passed and approved my accounts, you con- 
fessed in addition that I had done every thing 
honestly and without corruption." 

P. 173. ovSejdiav yap irwiror' eypaxparo /me, ovS 
toiwZe ypa<j)riv. B. " For never did he himself 
either institute or prosecute any charge against 
me." Rather, " Never did he prefer any in- 
dictment against me, or pursue it to trial, after 
it was preferred." 

Ibid. TloWayoOev juev tolvvv av Tig tSoi rr\v ayva>- 
fX0Gvvr\v ai)Tov Kal rrjv |3ao7cainav, K. r. X. B. " From 

every quarter then may we deduce the proofs of 
his unfairness and spite ; but not the least from 
what he has argued about Fortune. I hold any 
one to be utterly senseless and barbarous [avovrov], 
who, being himself a man, can upbraid any of his 
fellow men with human misfortunes : for seeing 
that he who fancies himself most prosperous, and 
Fortune to be most kind, knows not that she 
will continue such until the evening of the same 
day, how dares he speak of fortune, or how upbraid 
another with her frowns ? But since iEschines has, 
besides many other such things, spoken so 
proudly on this point also, mark, Athenians, 
and you will perceive how much more true and 
more becoming a man will be my language than 
his ?" Now we must observe, in the first place, 
that all this deification of fortune, and all this 



125 



poetry about her favours and her frowns, is a 
complete interpolation of B. Nullum numen 
adest, si sit prudentia, which on this occasion 
means that fortune is not a goddess, if A. be 
prudently translated. B. makes her one, and 
though he does not place her in a temple, places 
her very unnecessarily, and, from his foolish note, 
very conspicuously, in his book. The following 
is a translation more close to the original : " In 
numerous instances, then, one may perceive his 
qffihisive and spiteful disposition, and not the least 
in the dissertation he has given us upon fortune. 
For my own part, I hold any one, who, being 
himself a man, can reproach his fellow-man with 
his fortune, as altogether destitute of feeling and 
understanding. For if he who thinks that he is 
most successful, and fancies that his fortune is 
most favourable, does not know whether it is to 
remain so till evening, how ought we to speak 
respecting it, or how cast it as a reproach in the 
face of another ? But since this man uses the 
language of over-weening pride on this point, as 
well as on many others, mark, O men of Athens, 
and observe, how much more of truth and of 
humanity there is in my dissertation on fortune 
than in his." 

P. 175. o Se tt\v iSiav Tvyr]v rr\v ejuLrjv rr)Q koivt\q 
tt)q 7r6\t(oe KvpiioTtpav eivai (pr)Gi, ryv fiiKpav Kai 
<j>av\r)v tt)Q ayaflric *ai /xcyaArjc. B. " But jEschineS 

f3 



126 



contends that my individual fortune is greater 
than that of the community at large ; the small 
and the mean, than the great and the important." 
This gives quite a wrong notion of the meaning 
of A., who is not talking of the magnitude, but 
of the mastery, of fortunes. Translate, " He as- 
serts that the fortune of an individual, like my- 
self, got the mastery of the common fortune of the 
country, — the small and worthless being more 
powerful than the worthy and the great." 

Ibid. iravGai XoiSopovjuisvoQ clvttj, is not " pause 
before you inveigh against it," but simply, " cease 
to inveigh against it." 

P. 176. ay to yap ovr A Tig Traviav irpOTrr\\aKiCai 9 
vovv zyaiv rjyovfiat, our ei tiq kv atyOovoig rpafpaiq am 

tovtw (jEjuivvveTai. B. "" For I deem no one of 
sound mind who either insults poverty, or, brought 
up in affluence, makes wealth his boast." Not 
quite correct, nor quite as pointed as A. Try 
this version : " For I cannot consider him to be 
a man of common sense, who either throws dirt 
upon poverty, or gives himself airs because he has 
been bred and brought up in affluence." 

Ibid. E^uoe juev roivvv V7rrjp%av, AiGyjivr), TracSJ 
jLizv ovti, fyoirav siQ Tci irpoar]KovTa SiSatr/caAaa, Kal 
ayjciv, oera y^pr\ rbv fxry&v aiay^pov iroir](JovTa Bi 
evSuav* e^eXOovri Se sk 7ratSwv, raicoXovOa rovroig 
irpaTTUVy yopriyuvy rpnqpapyjEiv, u<j(j>epsiv, /u^e/uiag 
(j>i\oTijuiiaq cnro\Ei7rt<j0ai. B. " It was my 



127 



lot then, iEschines, when a boy to frequent the 
schools suited to my station, and to have where- 
withal to avoid doing any thing mean through 
want. When I emerged from boyhood, I did 
as was consistent with my origin, filled the 
office of choregus, furnished galleys, contributed 
to the revenue, and was wanting in no acts of 
munificence, public or private." His lordship 
then proceeds, in a note, to criticize Leland, 
Francis, and Dawson, for what he evidently con- 
siders their miserable attempts at translating 
this passage; and, after capering, and frisking, 
and kicking his legs about in a most singular 
fashion, suddenly stops short, with a smirk of 
great complacency, to see whether the world is 
admiring him. We lament that we cannot 
yield him that applause which he looks so 
proudly round for. In the first place, A. does 
not talk of " schools suited to his station," he is 
merely alluding to the schools of the citharist, 
and the 7raiSoTp//3*?c, to which the Athenian 
youths were sent for the development of their 
mental and bodily powers. JEschines has told 
us, in a few words, what he considers the whole 
cycle of Athenian education. Ev iVre, w avSpz^ 

AOqvaioi, on ov^ al TraXcuGTpai, oi/Se rd SiSafffcaXaa, 
oiS 17 juoucri/aj julovov 7rai§evei rovg vziorzpovQ, aWa 
7roXt/ fuaWov tcl 8r//uo(Tta /crfpt/yjuara. Again, ratco- 

\0v6a rovToig is not " consistent with my origin," 

F 4 



128 



nor any thing so egotistical. In the next place, 
uatykpuv is not " to give a contribution to the 
revenue," except so far as the payment of a 
property taw may be so considered. Ela^epuv 
does not merely mean to pay tawes, but to enter 
a certain taxable capital into the symmorise. 
The passage may be thus translated: "It was 
my lot then, JEschines, whilst a boy, to go to 
suitable schools, and to have all those allowances 
which it is fit that a youth should have, who is 
to do nothing disgraceful through want; and, 
on emerging from boyhood, to act consistently 
with such an education, to become a choregus, 
— to serve the office of trierarch, — to enter my 
property for taxation in the symmoriae; — to 
shrink from no office of honourable ambition, 
either public or private." 

P. 177. £yw fxlv Srj TOiavry avfui(iefiiwKa Tvyjf' 
Kai ttoW av iyjov erep uwuv ireoi avTr\Q y iraoaXuirb), 
tyvXaTTQiizvoQ to \vTrr\aai Tiva ev oiq azfivvvofAai. 

" Such, then, were my fortunes. I pass over many 
other particulars respecting them, that I may 
avoid giving offence to any one by referring to 
what I glory in." B. This is very weak when 
compared with the language of A. : " Such has 
been the condition of my life up to the present 
hoar : and though I have many details to men- 
tion respecting it, I omit them, carefully guard- 
ing myself against giving offence to any by 



129 



referring to the points on which I feel a justi- 
fiable pride." Sejuvuvojucu, in a good sense, is the 
sumo superbiam quasitam mentis of Horace. 

Pp. 176, 177, 178. We submit the greater 
part of B.'s version of the next section, which is 
full of the most inexcusable blundering, in order 
that we may contrast it with a translation by 
one of the first Greek scholars living, Mr. 
Mitchell, the celebrated translator and editor of 
Aristophanes. We place Lord Brougham's 
version first ; for, if we did not, we should not 
expect to have it read at all. After feasting on 
the finest of bread, what mortal stomach — quae 
messorum ilia — would be satisfied with the gar- 
bage even of Chaonian acorns? Lord Brougham, 
and never was the Schoolmaster more abroad, 
translates as follows : " But you, venerable man ! 
who look down upon others [o gzjavoq avrip kqi 
SiairTvwv roue aXXouc], see what kind of fortunes 
were yours compared with mine. Brought up 
from your boyhood in abject poverty, you both 
were helper in your father's school, and you 
ground the ink, sponged the forms, and swept 
the room, doing the work \jx (ji)V ™£ tv ] of a 
household slave, not of a freeborn youth. 
When grown up, you recited [avryryvwer/ese] 
your mother's books as she performed her mys- 
teries [jurjrpt rcAovcTfl], and you helped in her 

F 5 



130 



other trickeries [raXXa avvtaKsvupov^. At night 
dressed like a bacchanal! [i>ej3oi'£a)v] and draining 
the goblet ! ! [/cpar^i^wv] and purifying the initi- 
ated, and rubbing them with clay and with 
bran, rising from the lustration ! ! ! [aviarag euro 
tov KaQapfxov] you ordered them to cry, ' I've 
fled the evil, I've found the good ;' bragging that 
none ever roared! [oXoXu£ai] so loud before: 
and truly I believe it : for do not doubt [ju?J 
Quads] that he who now speaks out so lustily, 
did not then howl most splendidly ! ! ! [o'XoXv&tv 
ovk vTreoXafjurpov. To think that any man who 
is ignorant of the signification of oXoXv&iv, in a 
religious sense, should set up as a translator of 
A. ! A lad guilty of such a mistranslation would 
be made to " roar" and " howl" for it, with a 
vengeance.] But by day, heading those fine 
companies along the highways, crowned with 
haybands ! ! ! arid with herbs!!! and squeezing 
Parian snakes ! ! ! [o</>ac rove Hapuag] and bran- 
dishing them over your head, bellowing Evoe 
Saboe, and dancing to the tune Hyes Attes, 
Attes Hyes, you were saluted by the poor old 

women \_vtto twv ypaBiwv 7TjOO(rayop£uo^i£voc] as 

leader, and forerunner, and basket-bearer, and 
link-bearer [Xucvotyoaog, not Xvyvcxpooog,] and the 
like, and received as wages for those offices, 
cakes and chains, and new-baked bread ; on all 
which, Athenians ! who would but heartily con- 



131 



gratulate him [avrov evSaipoviGue] and his for- 
tune i p 

We now subjoin the following translation 
from the pen of Mr. Mitchell, who, with the 
modesty inseparable from a real scholar, prefaces 
it by a fear, that " he shall do injury to that 
style, in general at once so noble and so simple, 
but which, here wandering into an almost Aris- 
tophanic boldness of expression, requires to be 
perpetually expanded and diluted." Let our 
readers now look on this picture and that. 

" Turn we now to our man of dignity ; to him, 
who considers others as worthy only of the 
spittle of his mouth, and beg him to compare his 
fortunes with mine. [Addresses himself to JEschi- 
nes.~\ Born and bred in the veriest poverty, your 
earliest years found you attached to a mean 
school, of which your father was the preceptor. 
To prepare the ink, to sponge the benches, and 
to sweep the school-room, such were your occu- 
pations — occupations befitting a menial, but un- 

1 For the better understanding of this passage we recom- 
mend B. to peruse the Bacchae of Euripides throughout ; 
or, if that be too irksome a task for him, the notes of Mr. 
Mitchell, in his recent edition of the " Frogs of Aristo- 
phanes," on the three lines of Euripides, which are quoted 
at v. 1176 of that exquisite comedy : 

£l6vv(toq bg dvpcrourt /cat vefipuJv Sopalg 
KadcnrTUQ kv TrevKaiai Wapvavov Kara 
HrjSa xopevtoy. 

F 6 



132 



worthy a free man's son. [In consequence of 
this remark, we would translate o a^voq, at the 
commencement of this extract, " our man of 
high birth." We need not tell Mr. Mitchell 
that (jsfxvog has this meaning in Aristophanes.] 
Arrived at manhood, you became your mother's 
aid ; as she performed her stock of initiatory 
rites, you read the mystic formulae, and bore a 
part in all the subsequent operations. At night 
it was your business to clothe the candidates in 
skins of fawn, to pour them out huge cups of wine, 
to ivash them with the lustra! water \ to cleanse their 
skin with loam and bran ; and the holy rites thus 
done, to raise them up, and bid them cry — 

(Mimics) My bane I have fled, 

And my bliss I have sped ; 

none, as was your boast, giving forth the holy 
shout with such a potent voice as yourself. [Turns 
to the dicasts or the bystander s.~] Verily, 1 can 
believe it ! for who that hears those powerful 
tones of declamation, in which he now indulges, 
can for a moment doubt that his religious ex- 
clamations were preeminently grand ? [To 
JEschines] The day found you a different em- 
ployment. You had, then, to conduct your 
noble troop through the public streets ; their 
heads crowned with fennel and with poplar leaves, 
while yourself were seen, — now pressing the 
coppered serpents, — now elevating them above 



133 



your head, — now shouting Evoi, Saboi, — now 
raising a dance to the words Hyes Attes, Attes 
Hyes, while all the crones and beldames of the 
quarter honoured you with the pompous titles 
of ' Exarch,' ' chief conductor,' ' chest-carrier, 5 
' fan-bearer,' — gingerbread and cake, and twisted 
bun falling plentifully upon you as the rewards 
of your pious labours. Happy and distinguished 
lot — who can think it were his own, and, so 
thinking, not deem himself supremely blest !" 

Oh! that Mr. Mitchell would translate the 
rest of these noble orations in the same terse, 
and pointed, and vigorous style. But he has 
much of Aristophanes yet to edit and translate ; 
and we would not have that work interrupted 
even for A. himself. 

P. 178. evOeiog to /caXXicrrov e^eXs^o) tCov ipyuv, 
v7roypa(jLiJLaTevuv Kai virr^peTEiv roiq apyj^ioiq' wg §' 
aTrriWayriQ ttots Kai tqvtov, iravQ a twv aXXwv 
KarriyGQUQ, avroq ttqu^gclq, ov Karyayyvag , jxa At , 
ov^lv tCjv 7rpov7rr)ayiJi£V(t)v Tto julbtcl ravra j3iw. With- 
out doing more than noticing that B., in the 
preceding sentence, translates ug rovg S^orac 
£veypa<j>r)g, " you come to be enrolled among the 
members of your township,*' we subjoin his trans- 
lation of the above passage, in which he has 
omitted all notice of the diminutives in 'YIIO- 
ypawaTsvuv and apw&oig, which are purposely 
used to impeach the respectability of JEschines's 



134 



original position in society : " You very soon 
chose out for yourself a most noble employ- 
ment, that of clerk and servant to the city officers. 
Then, quitting after a time this employment 
also, and doing everything yourself of which 
you accuse others, God knows, your subsequent 
life was no way unworthy of its beginning." 
Now A. says: "You straightway selected for 
yourself the most noble of employments, that 
of being sub-clerk and servant to our petty public 
functionaries; and when you were, at length, 
relieved even from that employment, after 
having yourself done every thing of which you 
accuse others, you did not, by heavens, disgrace 
any of your former circumstances by your sub- 
sequent life." We know, from another oration 

of A., that jEschineS v 7rey pafULfjLarevE rw &7/uw /cat 

vTrriptTzi Ty fiov\y. iEschines was, therefore, only 
deputy-clerk to the people. Now the ypa/m/iaTevg 
to the people was not considered a very respect- 
able officer, because he was so ill-paid, that from 
eighteen -pence to half-a-crown was considered 
a sufficient bribe for those who held his office. 
In what estimation, then, must the office of his 
deputy have been held ? A., on the present 
occasion, purposely keeps back the names of the 
public functionaries, to whom his rival was 
vTrr)pkrr\q, but impairs their dignity by using the 
diminutive apyiSioiq. All this is lost sight of by 



135 



B., and the sarcasm of A. is in consequence con- 
siderably weakened. But as a writer, who has 
come to the rescue of B., observes, this is a 
"bold and free" translation. Yes, "free" of the 
meaning of A., and " bold" in setting Greek and 
grammar alike at defiance. 

Pp. 179, 180. a\\a yap wapeig t£ wv rrjv 7revlav 
aiTtaaair av rig, irpog avra tcl tov rpo-irov gov j3a&ov- 
juai k art) y opt] fxar a. Toiatrrrjv yap eiXov iroXiTtiav 

(sTTElSri 7T076 Kdl TOVT £7TrjX0£ (701 7TOl?7(7ai), K. T. A* 

"But, passing over these things, which may be 
ascribed to poverty, I come to the charges that 
apply to your life and conversation. You chose, 
then, that line of policy (ever since the plan struck 
your mind), &c." B. The translation should be : 
" But, passing from these matters, for which 
any man might blame his poverty [rather than 
his will], I will now proceed to such accusations 
as affect your character. For you chose such a 
line of policy (when at last it came into your head 

TO MEDDLE WITH SUCH MATTERS)," &C. 

Pp. 180—182. We subjoin B.'s translation 
entire, of what critics term the celebrated avri- 
Otaig of Demosthenes. Besides mistaking, he 
has not explained the meaning of A., in his 
attempts at brevity : " Draw, then, the parallel 
between your life and mine, iEschines, quietly 

and not acrimoniously [k^kraaov nap' a\Xr)\a to. 

vol Kafxol |3£/3ict>/u£va], and demand of this audi- 

6 



136 



ence which of the two each of them had rather 
choose for his own l . You was an usher [c&'Sacrjccc 
Yjoajujuara], T a scholar [eyw 8' £</>oi'rwv], you were 
an initiator, I was initiated ; you danced at the 
games ! \jyj>pzvio\ I preside over them I ! ! [*x°PJ~ 
jow. A. does not say that he was 'Aywvo0£7»/c] 
you was a clerk of the assembly, I a member ; 
you a third-rate actor, I a spectator ; you were 
constantly breaking down [eSeiriTrrec], I always 
hissing you; your measures were all in the 
enemy's favour, mine always in the country's ; 
and, in a word, now on this day the question as 
to me is, whether or not I shall be crowned ! ! ! 
[v7r£p rov <TTe<f>avu)0 rivai. A. had been crowned 
some years before in pursuance of the decree 
now indicted], while nothing whatever is alleged 
against my integrity, while it is your lot to ap- 
pear already as a calumniator, and the choice of 
evils before you [/avoWvac] is, that of still continu- 
ing your trade, or being put to silence by failing to 

1 This translation, faulty as it is, appears to be an improve- 
ment on another translation of this passage, which B. pub- 
lished in the fourth volume of his speeches, p. 454. "You 
were an usher, I was a scholar : you were an initiator, I 
was initiated ; you danced at the games, I presided over 
them. You were a clerk in court, I an advocate [kypafxixa- 
r£vec» eyio cT YjKK\ri<ria£ov~]. You were a third-rate actor, I 
a spectator ; you fell down on the stage, I hissed you," &c. 
&c. 



137 

obtain a fifth of the votes ! ! ! Most happy (don't 
you perceive ?) has been the fortune of your life 

[ayaffyTE (ov% ooag) Tvyij <TV/j,fie(3ui)Kwg,~\ SO that 

you may well speak contemptuously of mine. 

Come, then, I will TUn Over \_<j>epe St) Kal avayvw] all 

the testimonies of the offices which I adminis- 
tered : but do you, jEschines, also recite to us 
the verses you used to murder. 

" Quitting the gates of darkness, lo, I come ;" 
And again, 

" Reluctantly I bear bad news, ye know ;" 
And again, 

" May curses light \_k<xkov kcik&q oe\ ;" 

" Yes ; and first of all upon yourself, aban- 
doned citizen ! traitor ! third-rate actor ! first 
upon you may the gods, and then this whole 
assembly, bring destruction." In a note on the 
words £^£7ri7TT€c, *yw S* hfjvpiTTov B. says, " The 
tense here clearly denotes a constant recurrence." 
It may, if we are to admit B.'s translation of 
Eiar'nrTEiv to be right. But then, if the tense — - 
the imperfect — denotes a constant recurrence in 
this instance, it also denotes " a constant recur- 
rence " in all the previous clauses of the anti- 
thesis ; and so translating it, see what nonsense 
you will make of the whole passage. " You were 
constantly an usher, I always a scholar ;" and so 
on. Our immortal Milton, whose scholarship 
was universal, appears to have had a better no- 



138 



tion of the meaning of the words, k^irnrTzq 9 
ej(o 8 eavoLTTov, than our learned ex-chancellor, 
whose learning, professedly universal, seems to 
be much on a par with that of Margites, — 

HoXX.' ilTTlGTCLTO ?f>ya, KCLKUtQ $' y)TClG7Q.TQ iraVTCL. 

In an eloquent passage in his " Apology for 
Smectymnuus," where he had evidently this 
whole passage in his eye, he has translated them 
most accurately. He is speaking of " the young 
divines, and of those next in aptitude to divinity," 
in our colleges, whom he had seen " so often 
upon the stage, writhing and unboning their 
clergy-limbs to all the dishonest gestures of 
Trinculoes, buffoons, and bawds ;" and he adds, 
" There, while they acted, and over-acted, among 
other young scholars, I was a spectator; they 
thought themselves gallant men, and I thought 
them fools; they made sport, and I laughed; 
they mispronounced, and I misliked ; and to make 
up the Atticism, they were out and I hissed" The 
other parts of this eloquent passage, which B. 
has mistranslated, will be most clearly seen from 
the subsequent version of it. " Examine then, 
in strict contrast with each other, all the circum- 
stances of your life and mine, and from their first 
commencement to the present hour, iEschines ; 
and then ask every one of our judges, whether he 
would choose for his own, your fortune or mine. 



139 



You were a teacher of letters, [" Letters serving 
the purpose of figures among the ancients, the 
word ypapiuLaTa is pretty nearly equivalent to our 
reading, writing, and arithmetic." Mitchell's 
Knights, v. 187.] and I went to school to learn 
them ; you were a performer in the initiatory 
rites, and I was one of the initiated ; you formed 
one of the chorus, and I furnished funds for the 
expenses of the drama [^op^ow] ; you were a 
clerk to the assembly, and I was a member of 
the assembly itself; you were an actor of third- 
rate characters, and I looked on as a spectator; 
you were out in your part, and I hissed ; you 
adopted a course of policy, which throughout 
was beneficial to our enemies, and I a course of 
policy which was ever advantageous to our 
country. Other matters I omit. Even now, 
on this very day, my conduct is submitted to scru- 
tiny, because I have been crowned, and is admitted 
to be free from all imputations of wrong done ; but 
your fate is to appear in the light of a false and 
malignant accuser ; and the risk you run is, whether 
you will be permitted to follow that occupation any 
longer, or whether you must perforce abandon it 
immediately, andfcn* ever, in consequence of not ob- 
taining a fifth part of the votes. Having thus 
passed the whole of your life in the enjoyment 
of fortune, which (don't you perceive it ?) must, 
forsooth, be considered favourable, you come for- 



140 

ward to accuse mine as utterly despicable. Come, 
then, let me read the testimonials which I have 
received from the various liturgies which I have 
served, and pray do you, as a contrast, read to 
us the verses which you were accustomed to 
murder :- — 

"Darkness, its realms and gates, I leave and come." 

And again, 

" Bad tidings, know, I tell against my will." 

And again, 

" Evil man, in evil guise — " 

may first the gods, and next your judges, con- 
sign you to perdition, as being an abandoned 
citizen, a traitor, and a third-rate actor." 

P. 182. KOI TTOLGl TOig &OjU£VOtC STTClpKiOV, <na>7r(t>' 

Kai ouSev av siVoijUi, ouSt TrapaayoifULriv av W£pi 
tovtu)v ov^Sfxlav fiapTvplaVy our' a nvaq sk twv 
TToAauwv eXvcrajmrjVy our u nai dvyarepag a7TOQOU(xi 
<jvvs£e$wica, owe rwv roiourwv ouScv. " If you are 

not aware that I was ready to help all, who 
asked my aid, I have done : nor will add one 
word, nor bring forward any evidence on the 
subject, nor speak of captives redeemed, nor of 
daughters portioned, nor of any other acts like 
these." B. But A., in our opinion, puts his 
case much more forcibly and much more rheto- 
rically, by saying, " If you are not aware that I 
was always ready to give sufficient aid to those 



141 



who stood in need of it [he did not require to be 
asked, when the need was brought under his 
notice. The words, however, undoubtedly admit 
the sense which B. has ascribed to them], I am 
silent, and I will not say one word, and I will 
not produce any testimonials on these points, 
not even though I have ransomed individuals from 
the hands of our enemies, nor though I have 
assisted parents, who were not in affluence, in por- 
tioning off their daughters, nor though I have 
done many acts of a similar nature." 

P. 183. u /u€v yap £\£tc, k. t, A. " So if, 

iEschines, you can name any mortal under the 
sun untarnished by the tyranny [a0woc tt\q Swaa-- 
re'iag, i. e. unscathed by the power'] first of Philip, 
now of Alexander, be he Greek or be he Bar- 
barian, — then be it so — I will grant you that 
my fortune or ill-luck [ttjv hjir\v, ure Tvyyv, sire 
Svorv^iav ovojiaCuv [3ov\si. There is a 7rapovo- 

ixaala in these words, which might easily have 
been rendered into English, ' I grant you that 

my , call it as you please, , fortune, or 

misfortune 5 ], is [has been] the cause of all that 
has happened. But if of those, who never set 
eyes on me, nor heard the sound of my voice, 
many have suffered much and grievous evil, not 
only individuals but whole cities and nations, 
how much more just and correct is it according 
to the probability of the case, [this is taking the 



142 



tog eoiKBv clean away from the cnravTiJv avQpio- 
ttojv, although it is inserted between cnravTwv 
and av6pw7T(ov, and evidently belongs to them,] 
to regard the common lot of humanity \rvyj]v 
koivyiv~\ or some force of circumstances untoward 

and difficult to resist [4>opav rtva 7rpayfiaTWV )(aA£- 

Trrtv ical <>v^ olav e'Sei] as the origin of these cala- 
mities \_<j>opa irpayfiarayv means here ' a crop of 
troubles,' as in a former part of the oration $opa 
irpoSoTwv meant ' a crop of traitors 5 ]. You, how- 
ever, disregard all those, throw the blame upon 
me, called upon as I was to carry on the govern- 
ment in such a crisis, [no — c throw the blame 
upon me, who proposed and carried all my mea- 
sures in the presence of these our countrymen, 
wapa tovtokti, who, if they pleased might have 
resisted them/] and this, though you well knew 
that if not the whole, at least a part of the re- 
probation is due to the community at large, 
but principally to yourself, [no — still stronger, 
' though you well know that you were fastening, 
if not the whole, at least a part of the calumny 
on all your countrymen, and especially upon 
yourself]. For if I had counselled the state 
with full and absolute powers, your other orators 
would have had some right to accuse me. But 
if you were yourselves always present in all 
the public assemblies \_au does not mean here 
' always/ but ' from time to time/ a common 



143 



usage of the word in A.], if the state publicly 
propounded for discussion the course fit to be 
pursued, if what was done appeared to all, but 
chiefly to you, the most expedient, (for it was 
through no good will towards me that you al- 
lowed me to enjoy all the hopes and admiration 
and honours that waited on my measures at this 
time, but manifestly, because you were over- 
powered by the truth, and had nothing better to 
propose,) are you not now unjust and outrageous 
in crying out against [no — ' in accusing'] mea- 
sures, than which you then knew none better." B. 
Attached to this translation is a very singular 
note on the word <j>ooa. At p. 42 he had trans- 
lated it properly enough, " a crop or revenue," 
and had said that Wolff had rightly given 
" leges," an evident misprint for " seges," as the 
corresponding Latin word for it. Forgetful of 
all this he writes at p. 183, that <j>opa means 
clearly " a rush," " a movement," " a force," and 
that ^aX£7r?7v is best rendered by " hard to resist." 
We are quite convinced, (to borrow a phrase of 
Milton,) that " no pedagogue stood at his elbow, 
and made it itch with this parlous criticism." 
We would translate the clause in which it occurs 
as follows, " How much more just and correct is 
it to suppose that the common fortune, as it 
would seem, of all mankind, and a sort of har- 
vest of troubles, difficult to endure and defying 
all previous calculation, was the cause of all they 



144 



suffered ?" It is scarcely necessary to quote in- 
stances of 7rpay/uara in the sense of " troubles ;" 
but if any tyro doubt, let him consult a passage 

which follows in this oration : Si' e/zs uq irpayixara 
(j>a<TKO)v £fjL7r£(jeiv ttiv 7r6\iv, and the Clouds of 
Aristophanes, v. 11 69 ; k^Ittov r\v evOvq ttote 

Air epvO pleural juaAAov tj (f\£iv 7rpa*yjiiara. 

P. 194. We have great pleasure in enlivening 
the dulness of our criticism by Mr. Campbell's 
version of the celebrated inscription on the 
Athenians who fell at Chaeronea. It is spi- 
ritedly translated, all but the last two lines, 
which by no means convey either the sense or 
the force of the original. " The immortal gods 
are ever great/' bears no resemblance to 

M.r]()ev afxaprftv earl Oeutv Kal iravra KaropOovv 
'Er fitoTrj. 

And B. in introducing that faulty line afterwards 
into the oration of A. impairs much of its gigantic 
loftiness. 

" These were the brave unknowing how to yield, 

Who, terrible in valour, kept the field 

Against the foe, and higher than life's breath 

Prizing their honour, met the doom of death, 

Our common doom — that Greece unyoked might stand, 

Nor shuddering crouch beneath a tyrant's hand. 

Such was the will of Jove, and now they rest 

Peaceful enfolded in their country's breast. 

The immortal gods alone are ever great, 

And erring mortals must submit to fate." 



145 



P. 195. aXX' £7rapac Tr\v (pwvriv, Kai yeynOtog, 

Ka\ Xapvyytlujv, k. r. X. B. "But raising his 
voice, and exulting, and vociferating, he fancied 
forsooth he was accusing me, when he was only 
showing [Say^ua sZtyzpe K<xO' £aurou] that he did 
not feel as all other men felt upon the public 
misfortunes. And yet the man, who affects a 
deep concern for our laws and constitution, as 
iEschines now does, ought, if he has no other 
quality, at least to have the fellow T -feeling w 7 ith 
the people, of sorrowing and rejoicing over the 
same events, and not pursue that line of policy, 
which must make him take part with the enemy, 
as you, iEschines, are now clearly proved to 
have done, while you pretend that every thing is 
owing to me, and that through me the country 
has been brought to its present condition, instead of 
admitting that she first began to succour all Greece 
through my policy and my measures." In a note 
B. says, that the literal meaning of \apvyyit<**v 
is to strain the throat or windpipe. But in the 
Knights of Aristophanes where the sausage- 
seller uses the phrase Xapvyyiw tovq pjTopac, the 
scholiast interprets it " I w T ill cut the throats of 
the orators," and Mr. Mitchell, on the authority 
of Wieland, " I will throttle the orators." We 
are therefore inclined to give a very different 
meaning to Xapvyyllwv from that which B. calls 
its natural meaning. It is possible that the word 

G M 



146 



may signify, "splitting his own windpipe;" but 
we doubt it. At any rate it means much more 
than " vociferating," the word employed in the 
text. This phrase of A. is quoted by Pliny 
(Ep. iv. 7.) and is explained by Lallemand as 
meaning * verba ex gutture promens," but he 
does not state on what authority. We would 
translate as follows : — " Then, raising his voice, 
and exulting in soul, and seizing me by the 
throat, [we would read Xapvyyifav eps] he fan- 
cied, indeed, that it was me whom he was ac- 
cusing, whereas he was exhibiting publicly against 
himself a proof, that on our past misfortunes he 
had no feeling in common with the rest of his 
countrymen. And yet he who asserts, as Ms-. 
chines now does, that he feels a deep Concern 
for our laws and for our constitution, ought, if 
he has no other, at least to have this, quality, — 
an identity of feeling with the people in their 
sorrows and their joys ; and ought not, from the 
principles on which he would administer the 
common weal, to take his stand in the rank of 
their enemies, as it is clear that you have now 
done in saying, that I was the cause of all that 
has happened, and that it was through me the 
city w r as involved in difficulties, when it was not 
owing to my statesmanship, or to my principles, 
that you [turns to the assembly] first began to 
vindicate the rights of Greece" 



147 



P. 200. ToV Sk TW^KTfJLOV TOVTOV, OV (TV fLlOV 

SdavptQ, Kai ttjv Tatypeiav, k. t. X. This noble and 
forcible passage, which, as B. observes, has ob- 
tained great and universal fame, is thus trans- 
lated by B. " But this repair of the walls, and 
the fosses, which you revile, I deem to merit 
favour and commendation : wherefore should I 
not ? Yet I certainly place this far below {iroppu) 
7rou] my administration of public affairs. For I 
have not fortified Athens with stone walls ! and 

tiled roofs! [oi> \iQoiq kTuyjLaa ttjv ttoXiv ovSt 

wXivtioig syw] — no, not I! Neither is it on 
deeds like these that I plume myself (ju*y«7rov 
4>povo>]. But would you justly estimate my out- 
works, you will find armaments (oTrXa), and 
cities, and settlements (towovq), and cavalry 
[7roXXoiic t7T7rovc]> and armies raised to defend 
us [rove v7i£p tovtwv ajxwovfxkvovq^. These are 
the defences that I drew around Attica \jrpov- 
/3aXo/ur?v 7rpo tt)q 'Amoic], as far as human pru- 
dence could defend her, and with such outworks 
as these I fortified the country at large, not the 
mere circuit of the arsenal and this city Nor 
was it that I succumbed to Philip's policy, and 

his arms, [ouSe y r)TTT)Qriv eyw toiq XoyiGjioiq 

<S>i\'nnTov . . . ovde tcliq 7rapa<jK£vai(;,~\ very far other- 
wise : but the captains and the forces of your 
allies yielded to his fortune." As Lord B. pro- 
fesses in his preface to be most hostile to the 

g2 



148 



" mischievous practice of paraphrase and cir- 
cumlocution," and declares his desire to make 
his translation " as close as it is possible," to the 
peculiar language in which it is written, we 
think that, without much difficulty, he might 
have translated this passage better. In his wish 
to be concise he has cut out much of the mean- 
ing of A., and has also lost much of his point. 
In the original there is a play of words through- 
out on rci^ior^oc and irei^i<ra. Those two are 
the only words used with respect to the walling 
or fortifications of Athens ; and a translator, as 
far as the genius of his language will allow, 
should adhere to them, and introduce no others. 
We would translate as follows : " But this re- 
pairing of the walls, to which you refer, for the 
sake of a sneer against me [ov av fxov Su cru^c], 
and the formation of the ditch and rampart, are 
matters, which in my opinion deserve favour 
and commendation. How should they not ? I 
place them, however, apart to a certain extent 
from the measures, which as the head of the 
administration I proposed myself. For it was 
not with stones or with bricks that I walled 
round the city, nor is it of any such services of 
mine that I think most highly. ' But if you 
wish to judge correctly of the walls which I did 
raise round the city, you will find them in mu- 
nitions of war, and in cities, and in territories, 



149 



and in harbours, and in ships, and in many 
horses, and in soldiers, to defend them all [pre- 
pared under my auspices]. These were the 
bulwarks which I raised as a buckler in front of 
Attica^ as far as human calculation availed, and 
these w T ere the walls with which I fortified our 
whole territory, not the mere circuit of the 
Pyraeus and of the citadel. Nor was I at all 
inferior to Philip in the calculation of our mu- 
tual resources ; very far from it, nor in the ar- 
maments we both prepared for war ; but the 
commanders and the forces of your allies were 
inferior to him in point of fortune." In a note 
B. imagines the effect which Mr. Pitt would 
have produced with this passage, supposing him 
to have been attacked for his Martello towers ; 
but has abstained from saying a word on the 
effect which Sir W. Jones has produced wdth it 
in his noble ode, after the manner of Alcseus, 
commencing, " What constitutes a state ?" &c. 
By-the-bye, it was a fragment of Alcaeus that 
gave A. the hint of this magnificent passage. 

P. 201. r't yjpr\v ttoiuv rov fxera Traar)Q irpovoiaq 
Kat 7rpo0vjJLLaQ koli ^iKaioavvqq virlp rr/c TrarpiSoc 
7ro\iTEv6fxevov ; ovk SK /i£v 0aAarrr?c tt\v Evj3oiav 
7rpoj3aAecr0eu irpo rr)q 'Kttik^q, k,t.\. " What 

was the part of him who would serve his coun- 
try with all earnestness, and zeal, and honesty of 
purpose ? Was it not to cover Attica on the 

g3 



150 



seabord with Euboea?" &c. B. Rather, "What 
was he to do, who, for the benefit of his country, 
was administering her affairs with all forecast, 
and zeal, and honesty of purpose ? Was it not 
on the seabord to place Euboea as a shield before 
Attica ?" In every passage in this oration where 
the word irpofidWofiai is used, and it is a fa- 
vourite word with A., B. appears ignorant of its 
meaning. IlpofidWzaOai is to place any thing 
before you as a buckler. Stock, in the phrase 

rrjv dyaQriv TrpofiaWofuievovg e\irl^a 9 very properly 

translates 7rpoj3aXXo|U£vovc tamquam clypeumprcB- 
tendentes. So in the phrase ravra wpovftaXofivv 

kjU) TTpO TT)Q AtTUCTIQ. 

P. 202. u S 17 Saifiovog rivoq, 17 rvyjiq tayvq, r) 
(TTpaTrjyCov (JxivXottiq, 17 Ttijv 7rpoSiSovrwi/ Tag iroXug 
vfiwv /ca/cm, rj iravra ravra a^ua eAujurjvaro rote o\oig, 
lug dvtTptxfse, ri Ar?/iO(T0f vr\q aSi/ai ; B. " But if the 

favour of some deity, or of fortune, or the re- 
missness of commanders, or the wickedness of 
traitors like you, iEschines, in different states, 
or if all these causes together have embarrassed 
our whole affairs and brought them to ruin, 
wherein has Demosthenes been to blame ?" 
How ivyyq Zaiiiovoq comes to be rendered " the 
favour of some deity," his lordship can best tell. 
We are inclined to think with Reiske, that 
after ^aifiovoq some such word as <j>06voq or 
^va/xevua was used by A. though it has now 



151 



slipped out of the MSS. We would translate 
the whole passage thus : " But if the power of 
some deity, or of fortune, or the worthlessness 
of your commanders, or the villany of men, who, 
like you, have betrayed the interests of their 
respective countries, or if all these different 
causes, acting at once, have impaired the common 
weal to such a degree as to produce its complete 
overthrow, where is the offence of which Demos- 
thenes is guilty f* 

P. 203. iva S u$r)T£, on 7roXXw toiq Xoyotc 
hXaTTOGi yjpu)}iai twv epytov, tvXafiov/nsvog rov <p06- 

vov, Xeys /ioi ravri " That you may perceive how 
much smaller my words are than my works, 
through fear of misconstruction, read, &c." B. 
His lordship has made a sad mistake here, from 
ignorance or forgetfulness of the feelings of the 
Greeks on the subject of <pQ6voQ. The passage 
should be thus translated : " That you may be 
convinced that my words fall far short of my 
works, taking precautions to propitiate [or, we 
should rather say, to disarm] envy, read these 
documents." The reluctance of the ancient 
Greeks to speak boastfully of their good fortune, 
lest they should incur a reverse, is w 7 ell known 
to every scholar. Besides the well-known epi- 
gram in the Anthologia, on the statue of Neme- 
sis, made out of the spoils of the Persian, there 
are two others, not quite so well known, in the 

g4 



152 

same work, explanatory of that feeling. The first 
is an inscription on a column dedicated to Ne- 
mesis : — 

'H NifietTLQ 7rpo\iyei r<p K^yi'trig re yakivu, 

Mrjr dfierpoy ri 7roLeiv, p*1T d^dXtva \iyeiv % 

and the second runs thus : — 

f H to irp\v avyr\aa<ja iro\vyjpv(roiQ kir epaorcuc, 

'H 'Nijj.eo'iv hetvriv ovy\ Kvsacra Osov, 
Mi<70/a vvv arwadioiQ ireviypoiQ nr] via para Kpovei. 

'0*^£ y 'AQrjvair) Kv7rptv kXrjiaaTO, 

We may also refer to the Seven against Thebes, 

VV. 765 — 769. irpoTrpvfxva §' £Kj3oAav (j)Bpu* r AvSpo)v 
aA^rjorav ''OXfioQ ayav irayyvOeig. Prom. Vinct. 

881—884, and Pers. 93—102. In this very 
oration A. uses the phrase, ovtoj yap jjloi Trepl 

kfxavrov \kyovri aveir ityOovuraTOV uttuv. 

P. 204. ov$* i)Gvyiav ayeiv aSe/cov Kai v7rov\ov. 
" Nor lead a life of criminal and traitorous re- 
tirement," B. v7tov\ov is not " traitorous." It is 
a metaphor taken from a scar apparently healed 
over, yet full of purulent matter within, which 
may at any time burst forth to the annoyance of 
the patient. The word occurs again in (Ed. 

Tyr. 1396, oiov dpa /xe KaAAog KaKhJV vttqv\qv 

z&QpexPaTe. We should rather translate .the words 
of A. thus : " nor preserve a criminal and hollow 
tranquillity." The full meaning of the phrase 
could not be given without a very long para- 



153 



phrase. 'Hau^m vrrovXog will be best understood 
by the analogous expression in Horace, of — 
incedis per ignes Suppositos cineri doloso. 

P. 209. twv ravrd croi 7rpoi[)prifi£v(A)v. " Those 

that side with you," B. Rather, " Those who 
have adopted the same public principles as you 
have." 

P. 513. Opart 81" ovk h^aiTOvitsvoc, ovk 'Afic^t- 
ktvovikclq SiKaq E7ray6vTU)v juioi, ovk cnretXovvTwv, ovk 
S7rayyeX\ofiev(i)v, ovyi tovq Karaparovg tovtovq, wa- 
7T£p Oripia, /mot 7rpoa(5a\\6vTWV, ovSajutoq irpoceSuJKa 

eyu) rrjv zlg vjxaq evvoiav. B. " For observe ; nei- 
ther taken my head was demanded by Philip, nor 
when they dragged me before the Amphictyons, nor 
when they threatened, nor ivhen they promised, 
nor when they let loose on me these wretches, 
like wild beasts, did I ever abate in any parti- 
cular my affection for you ?" We have here 
again, as in many other passages which we have 
not noticed, a repetition of blunders to which 
we have already called attention. We would 
translate this passage as follows : " And observe : 
neither when Philip was demanding that I should 
be given into his power ; nor when they were 
heaping upon me Amphictyonic suits, nor when 
they were threatening me, nor when they were 
promising me, nor when they were hounding on 
against me those accursed scoundrels, just as if 
they were so many savage beasts, did I ever in 

g5 



154 



any way abandon my affectionate attachment 
towards you?" 

P. 214. Ovk Eiri fAv roiq £T£p(vv zvTvyi)ixao I 
<j>ai§pog eyw km yeyrjOtjjg /caret tt^v ayopav irepupyo- 

jucu, k. t. A. B. " Never was I seen going about 
the streets elated and exulting, when the enemy 
was victorious, stretching out my hand and con- 
gratulating such as I thought would tell it else- 
where, but hearing with alarm any success of our 
own armies [rwv ring woXuog ayaOwv~\, moaning 
and bent to the earth, like these impious men, 
who rail at this country, as if they could do so 
without also stigmatizing themselves ; and who 
turning their eyes abroad, and seeing the prosperity 
of the enemy in the calamities of Greece, rejoice in 
them, and maintain that we should labour to make 
them last for ever." This passage is by no means 
translated literally ; and the closing sentence of 
it gives a meaning very different, and indeed 
much stronger, than that of Demosthenes. We 
subjoin as before a very literal translation of it. 
" Never did I saunter up and down the Agora 
[the great place for Athenian idlers and loungers] 
full of cheerfulness and joy, when our enemies 
were successful, stretching out my right hand, 
and offering my congratulations to those whom 
I might suppose to be likely to report them hi 
Macedonia ; and never did I hear of the good 
fortune of our country with a shudder, or with 



155 



a groan, or with a body bent to the earth, like 
these impious men, who sneer at their country 
as if they were not, in so doing, sneering at 
themselves — who look abroad and praise the pros- 
perity which the foreigner has obtained during the 
calamities of Greece, and say that an endeavour 
ought to be made to render that prosperity lasting 
throughout all time.'" 

Here we stop ; but not without observing, 
that in the last thirty pages of this translation 
there is a very visible improvement in the mode 
of its execution. So great is it, that we can 
scarcely believe that the first and the last part 
of the work are by the same hand. We subjoin 
as a specimen the concluding section of the ora- 
tion. " Let not, O gracious God, let not such 
conduct receive any manner of sanction from 
thee : rather, plant, even in these men, a better 
spirit and better feelings. But if they are 
wholly incurable, then pursue them — yea, them- 
selves by themselves, — to utter and untimely 
perdition, by land and by sea [rovrovq jmlv uvtovc 

Kaff eavTovt e^oj\ug /ecu TrpoioXeig kv yy /ecu daXarry 

7roiri<raTe,] and to us, w 7 ho are spared, vouchsafe to 
grant the speediest rescue from our impending 
alarms, and an unshaken security." 

We now approach — and most thankful are 
we for it — the termination of our labours. In 
prosecuting them, we are conscious, that we 

g 6 



156 



must have committed several errors; for we 
were not content, as perhaps we ought to have 
been, with the detection, but were venturous 
enough to attempt the correction, of the mis- 
translations of Lord Brougham. We trust, 
however, that even when a deduction is made 
for those blunders, 

" quas aut incuria fudit, 

Aut humana parum cavit natura," 

we shall be found to have established beyond 
all dispute our original position, that Lord 
Brougham is deficient in all the qualifications, 
which we have a right to expect in a translator 
of Demosthenes. We may be told, that the 
merit of a great translation is to be estimated 
by "its general effect, and its ultimate result ;" 
and not by comparing it line by line, and para- 
graph by paragraph, with the original. We 
consider this to be a mistaken proposition : but 
admitting it to be correct, then we repeat what 
we originally asserted, that " the general effect 
and ultimate result" of this translation is highly 
derogatory to " the ] sublime yet simple, the Re- 
dundant yet concise, the refined yet idiomatic, 
the temperate yet passionate" style of composi- 
tion in the original. The Macedonian con- 
queror, when he was once invited to hear a 

1 Dionys. Halicarn. vol. ii. p. 273, as translated in an 
article on Demosthenes, Edin. Rev. for Jan. 1820. 



157 



man sing that sung like a nightingale, replied, 
with contempt, that he had heard the nightingale 
itself: and we are convinced, that all who have 
given days and nights to the study of the 
speeches of Demosthenes, will be as reluctant 
to take Lord Brougham's interpretation of them 
as a correct and vivid representation of the force 
and eloquence of that great orator, as Philip 
was to consider an imitation by the human 
voice as harmonious as the strains of the clearest 
and sweetest "quirister of the woods." But 
what will the mere English reader say to this 
volume? Hume, in describing the language 
and manner of Demosthenes, observes with 
great felicity, " it is rapid harmony, exactly 
adapted to the sense ; it is vehement reason- 
ing, without any appearance of art." Where 
in this translation will the mere English-ry find 
any of these characteristics of the original ? 
Where w 7 ill they find that "tone of sublimity, 
that living passion, that richness of style, that 
closeness of conception, that rapidity of argu- 
ment and thought," which Longinus exhausts 
his powers to describe as inherent qualities in 
every speech which Demosthenes delivered ? 
All have disappeared, all have vanished like 
the dream of a shadow amid the numerous mis- 
translations with which almost every other 
sentence of Lord Brougham's version abounds ; 



158 



and one might as well expect, that the splendour 
of the imperial crown would remain unimpaired, 
if every diamond in it contained a flaw, and if 
every gem were broken and misplaced, as that 
the genius of Demosthenes would shine forth 
in all its native lustre, after it has been dimmed 
in every line, and obfuscated in every paragraph. 
The copious torrent of eloquence has dwindled 
down into an insignificant beck, not so much 
because it has been wasted by having been 
drawn off into a thousand rills, as because its 
springs have been scorched up under the fiery 
touch of ignorance and indiscretion. The blood, 
the flesh, the nerve, the muscle, and the life of 
Demosthenes, all have undergone decomposi- 
tion. The skeleton alone remains, and its dry 
bones scarcely give a rattle, when the hand of 
his Lordship moves amongst them with all the 
desperate recklessness of unreflecting and un- 
hallowed zeal. 

But we may be informed, that Lord Brougham, 
in translating Demosthenes, had a higher aim 
than that of being considered an eminent word- 
catcher, or a distinguished antiquarian ; and that 
he looked to the genius and policy of the orator 
more than to his mere style and trickery of com- 
position. There is no assertion, there are no 
proofs in this volume, of any such intention on 
the part of his Lordship. Quite the reverse. 

3 



159 



The volume is intended to "assist the student 
in the Greek language," and is wonderfully, we 
had almost said shamefully, deficient in those 
illustrations which it might and ought to have 
received from parallel events in ancient and 
modern history. Nearly two hundred years 
have elapsed, since St. Evremond complained, 
that the commentators and translators of his day 
made a mystery of knowing that of which the 
world could well endure to remain ignorant, 
whilst they could not understand that in which 
it was important to have the w r orld instructed ; 
that they saw in Cicero nothing but a writer of 
Orations, in Caesar nothing but a writer of Com- 
mentaries ; and that they omitted all notice of 
the Consul and the General, because the genius 
of the Consul and the General was not conform- 
able to that of the grammarian and the critic, 
and therefore came not within the scope of their 
knowledge and observation. Nearly two hun- 
dred years, we repeat, have elapsed since that 
complaint was made : and we have now a man 
who, during a long life, has been practically 
versed in politics, and has had no little to do 
with the administration of public affairs, coming 
forward as the translator of the first orator of 
antiquity, without giving us more than a few 
words, and those not always correct, upon the 
sagacity and forethought of his author as a states- 



160 



man, and upon his activity, determination, and 
diplomatic ability as a practical politician. Had 
the " master-spirit of the age" descended to the 
consideration of Greek particles, and to the 
studies, in which it is said that " pedants and 
antiquaries exercise no faculty but that of me- 
mory," we might have overlooked his lack of 
reasoning upon the causes and effects of events; 
but as he has manfully disdained to enter upon 
that course of reasoning, we have a right to ex- 
pect that he should be provided with some store 
of classical learning, however slender or ill- 
arranged. In spite of all the assertions of cer- 
tain northern critics, {Ed. Rev., vol. xiii. p. 343,) 
that such learning is " oftener used to frighten 
people than to convince them, to dazzle and 
overawe than to guide and enlighten them, and 
to encumber than to assist their progress," we 
shall continue to think, that, as an author will 
always write better for knowing something of 
his subject, so a translator will always interpret 
more faithfully for knowing accurately the gram- 
matical rules and analogies of the language in 
which his original is composed. If he be desti- 
tute of such knowledge, he must not be sur- 
prised if he meet with — 



— " The critic scratch and scribble, 
And nice invidious nibble," 



161 



of those who have employed years and years in 
attaining it. 

This reflection leads us to another, and that 
is, that Lord Brougham has yet enough of life 
before him to become, if he so pleases, what he 
is not at present, an eminent Greek scholar. It 
is recorded of Cato, that he began to learn 
Greek at seventy. Lord Brougham, we believe, 
has a decade of years to enjoy before he reaches 
that age, and may therefore perhaps wish to 
have the example of a younger man proposed 
for his imitation. Well, then, we will propose 
the example of a distinguished man of letters, 
who had a genius quite as restless, and quite as 
greedy of fame, as his lordship himself, — we 
mean Victor d'Alfieri. In the very amusing 
Autobiography, which he left behind him, Al- 
fieri has confessed, that he had not read a word 
of either Homer, Pindar, or any of the Greek 
tragedians, when he arrived at the staid age of 
forty-and-seven. After spending nearly two 
years on "the confines of Greece," for so he 
fantastically terms the Greek grammar, he suc- 
ceeded at last in becoming a tolerable, if not an 
excellent, Greek scholar ; and at fifty-four com- 
pleted a translation of Homer into Italian. As 
every kind of labour deserves a reward, he 
thought that he ought to grant himself one, and 
that not lucrative, but honorary. He therefore in- 



162 



stituted an order of knighthood, which he called 
the order of Homer, and created himself the 
first knight of it : 

AVTOV 7TOLYJ(7aQ *A\(prjpiOQ lTTltE 'OfJLYjpOV, 

KoLpaviKfjg Tifxrji' r/Xtyaye detoTepav. 

And he was busily engaged in forming a design 
and a device for the collar of his knights, of 
which the clasp was to be concealed under a 
cameo of Homer's head, when he was surprised 
by death in the midst of his meditations. Now 
we think that this is an example, in all its points, 
well worthy the adoption of Lord Brougham. It 
will be an innocent and tranquillizing method of 
passing his time during the winter of his dis- 
content, so bitterly aggravated by his long and 
dreary destitution of office ; and when he shall 
have completed his studies, we will not object 
to his forming an order of Demosthenes, in 
rivalry to the order of Homer founded by Al- 
fieri. Rather than he should die with the device 
and design of his order unfinished, we will at 
once, out of our great bounty, provide him with 
both. Like Alfieri, he shall have a collar and a 
cameo : and the cameo shall be in the shape of 
a crown, and shall bear the head of Demos- 
thenes. We have two mottos for the exergue, 
of which we leave the selection to his lordship. 
The first is from Cicero : " Vox (qu. Vaux ?) in 



163 



coronam et turbas effundaturT The latter is 
from the hangman's collection of proverbs, 
" Funis coronat opus." And if his lordship adopt 
it, he will have precedence of course as Grand 
Cordon of the order. 

But a truce with such ponderous levities. 
We feel unfeigned sorrow, that Lord Brougham 
has been so led away by a morbid passion for 
notoriety, as to enter upon a department of 
literature for which his previous pursuits have 
so little qualified him : 



He 



Hath all the energy, which would have made 
A goodly frame of glorious elements, 
Had they been wisely mingled 

with temper, and modesty, and judgment ; and 
it is only when he must be travelling out of his 
own proper province, and beyond the sphere of 
his own acquirements, which unquestionably are 
extraordinary, that he shows himself to be 
nothing more than an ordinary mortal. Now 
it is not given to any individual to be master of 
all the departments of science and of literature. 
The brevity of life, and the infinitude of know- 
ledge, forbid it ; and it is a wise ordination of 
Providence, reminding man in his proudest mo- 
ments of his real insignificance, that the study 
of a whole life is almost necessary for the acqui- 



164 



sition of preeminence in any one branch of 
human learning. If Lord Brougham would but 
remember this, he would escape the ridicule, 
which he has often drawn down unconsciously 
upon himself, by pretending to be fully informed 
on subjects, of which he knew nothing, and of 
which it was no disgrace to him that he did 
know nothing. We heard some years ago of 
one of his misadventures in this respect, so far- 
cically ludicrous, that even his Lordship will 
smile when told of the remarks which it elicited. 
Shortly after his appointment to the office of 
Lord High Chancellor, he visited, along with 
some other ministers of the cabinet of Earl 
Grey, one of the most extensive breweries in 
this metropolis, and had there what is colloqui- 
ally called " a beef-steak dinner." After it was 
finished, a proposition was made, that they 
should inspect the works, and in order that the 
party might understand the use of each and all 
of them, the foreman, a cautious but intelligent 
Scotchman, was desired to attend and explain 
it. They had scarcely got into the first room, 
before Lord Brougham, with a slight motion of 
the hand, put aside his Scotch cicerone, who was 
volunteering an explanation, and said, with his 
usual cool, good-natured nonchalance, " Young 
man, I will save you the trouble you are about 
to undertake ; I understand all this perfectly 



165 



well, and will explain it myself to my noble and 
distinguished friends." His Lordship then pro- 
ceeded, without further preface, to explain to 
Earl Grey and the other members of this convi- 
vial party, every stage in the process of brewing ; 
but, unfortunately, did not explain one of them 
right even by accident. The Scotchman, who 
perceived, but was too prudent to expose, the 
ignorance of his countryman, was astounded at 
his unceasing volubility ; and in speaking of it 
in a mixed company, where our informant was 
present, observed, " Gude faith, Sirs, but it 
made ma hair staun on en to hear the Lord 
High Chancellor o' Great Britain tellin the 
Lord High Treesurer a lang tail aboot maut and 
a' the brewing o't, and nae word o' truth fra be- 
ginnin to en. It made a thinkin mon reflec 
what a terrible pass things must ha come till, 
when ae minister could jist tell, and anither 
minister jist believe, sic awfu' cantrips. Eh, 
Sirs, nae barrel can be gude, that that blatherin 
chiel has gat the brewin o\" Now we are not 
inclined to go to the full length to which this 
metaphor from the mash-tub would carry us. 
His Lordship has merits, and we are ready to 
admit them. To great powers of understanding 
he adds an unflinching and untiring industry, 
which all admire, few can imitate, and none sur- 
pass. To a command of words, which has of 



166 



late converted his once plain and terse, and 
masculine, and majestic diction, into a florid and 
diffuse, and effeminate, and Asiatic style, more 
tickling to the ear than convincing to the rea- 
son, he joins a knowledge of modern literature 
and contemporary history, which enables him to 
domineer over facts as he pleases, and which 
renders him in the senate an adroit, and, with 
his want of fixed principles, a most formidable 
antagonist. To long experience in the arts of 
debate, gleaned amid the tumults of popular 
assemblies, the wranglings of the bar, and the 
party-battles of Parliament, he unites that over- 
weening confidence in his own abilities, which, 
blinding him to the dangers of his position, often 
carries him unscathed through all the difficul- 
ties, to which his " patent for retractation, and 
his monopoly of change," to borrow a phrase from 
Mr. Fox, have unfortunately exposed him. 
These qualifications, with his occasionally novel 
and magnificent conceptions of ordinary subjects 
— conceptions, however, which are generally 
more dazzling than true, have placed him in the 
very first rank among the orators of the present 
day. Let him, then, if he is wise, pursue his 
triumphs in that arena in which he first won 
them, and in which he almost reigns unrivalled : 

" Ilia se jactet in aula 

Mollis." 



167 



But let him not venture beyond it. Above all 
things, let him eschew translation from the 
Greek. With his present knowledge, it is at 
once beneath and above his powers ; it will 
never do him credit, and, as Edwards warned 
Warburton, when he became a critic upon 
Shakspeare, it may be dangerous to trifle even 
with his reputation. 

There's ither men, much, much his betters, 
Far seen in Greek, deep men of letters, 
Ha'e thought they had ensured their debtors 

A' future ages : 
Now moths deform, in shapeless tatters, 

Their unknown pages. 



THE END. 



LONDON : 

gilbert and rivington, printers, 
st. John's square. 



JUN 31324 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



w\ 



in mil mil I 

003 050 252 8 



